Rosie O’Donnell is reflecting on her longstanding feud with President Donald Trump more than a year and a half after she left the U.S. for Ireland.
In a new interview with People on Wednesday, the TV personality said that Trump hasn’t “shut up about her for 20 years.”
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“It used to be when our president would say things about me, it would be like, whoa,” she said. “First of all, if you had written this as a movie, a stand-up comic makes fun of a reality show host who is a bloviating idiot and he ends up being the president, and then he doesn’t shut up about her for 20 years, it would be unbelievable — and the fact that it’s my life is very trippy.”
Trump has gone on offensive tirades about O’Donnell since 2006, including during the first Republican primary debate in 2015, where he called her a “fat pig” and a “slob” on national television. She had slammed Trump on a 2006 episode of “The View” over his decision to let Tara Conner keep her Miss USA title following scandals involving drug use and underage drinking.
Trump even went as far as threatening to revoke O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship last year.
O’Donnell, who is temporarily back in New York this summer to perform in her one-woman show “Common Knowledge,” said Trump’s insults have manifested in a “post-traumatic stress disorder” after he repeatedly used her as a punchline for 20 years.
She moved to Ireland just days after Trump was inaugurated for the second time in January 2025.
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The “View” co-host said that her move to Ireland has allowed her to “reclaim” herself without Trump publicly berating her.
She added that “it’s very strange to have supposedly the most powerful man in the world be your arch nemesis.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, O’Donnell raved about another upcoming endeavor — filling in as a guest host for one of Trump’s other frequent targets: late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
“I’m very happy that he asked me,” O’Donnell, who is set to appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” beginning Aug. 17, said of the host. “I admire him. I admire his tenacity and strength. I admire his conviction to speak out against this political terrorism that’s happening in our country, and I stand beside him and will.”
Trump’s ongoing feud with Kimmel became a public spectacle in April after first lady Melania Trump called for Kimmel’s firing over a joke about her. Trump has repeatedly pressured ABC to suspend Kimmel’s show over other political remarks he’s made.
O’Donnell’s “Common Knowledge” opens Wednesday at the Daryl Roth Theatre in New York City.