Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Ireland
Rosie O'Donnell has claimed Donald Trump's second presidential term is 'exponentially worse' amid threats to revoke her citizenship.
It's no secret the 63-year-old comedian and talk show host isn't exactly the biggest fan of the POTUS, and Trump isn't particularly fond of her, either.
The New York-born star, who has rich Irish heritage, even left the US to relocate permanently to Dublin earlier this year, citing the political landscape in the States as one of the prevailing reasons.
The LGBTQ+ rights activist and staunch Democrat said she considered the move 'best' for herself and her 12-year-old non-binary child.
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"It's been heartbreaking to see what's happening, politically, and hard for me personally as well," she said in a TikTok video to fans in March. "The personal is political, as we all know."
She also told HuffPost: "I needed a place where I could slow it down and remove him from the scary place he lives in my psyche."
Then in July this year, Trump threatened to revoke O'Donnell's US citizenship, writing on Truth Social: "Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.
"She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her."
Although experts have argued Trump's personal grievance with O'Donnell doesn't mean he can legally take away her citizenship, the 11-time Emmy winner is doubling down on her critique anyway.
Now, O'Donnell says she believes his second stint in office is 'exponentially worse,' telling HuffPost: “I believe fascism has taken a foothold in the United States.
"And with this new bill – that allows him to have his own secret police, and the budget for that [being] greater than the money we give to Israel, which is already unbelievably high – I look at America, and it feels tragic.
"I feel sad. I feel overwhelmingly depressed. I don’t understand how we got here.”
She continued: "The Supreme Court is stacked with right-wing idealists and Christian nationalists and people of questionable moral standing.
“I wish that they would have packed the court, that he would have enlarged the numbers so that there would be balance of some sort again. But it hasn’t happened, and it’s not going to happen.”
“This is what happens when democracies die. I believe we, as a human species, can do better than what we’re doing. And we, as the United States, can do better than what is happening right now. And it may be too late. That’s my worst fear."
“I don’t want to be a doomsdayer, but I think that the writing is on the wall. And it does not look good," she concluded.
O'Donnell first crossed paths with Trump almost two decades ago in 2006 when she was an anchor on The View. At the time, Trump had shot to fame on the reality show The Apprentice.
“I do say to myself sometimes, ‘what are the chances that the one guy that I exposed for being a misogynist and a sexist pig on The View would become the president of the United States, and would still be hung up on the fact that I told the truth about him?’," she added.
"I think to myself, 'boy, my life would be easier if this hadn’t happened'.
“I also think to myself, ‘why me?’ With the president of the United States going after me, calling me a fat, ugly, unsexy, disgusting, gay, liberal pig for 20 years?"
O'Donnell also said she was shocked there were no lawsuits brought against Trump for his alleged 'blatant misogynistic harassment,' adding: "Nobody did. Nobody called. Everybody laughed? People thought that it was funny - Rosie vs. Trump."
