US President Donald Trump has said he is considering revoking talk show host Rosie O’Donnell’s US citizenship after she criticised his administration’s response to weather agencies following the deadly floods in Texas—marking the latest chapter in their long-running feud on social media, reports RTE.
“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,” Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, referencing a deportation argument previously used by his administration in efforts to expel foreign-born protesters.
“She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!,” he added, reports RTE.
According to US law, a president does not have the authority to revoke the citizenship of a person born in the United States. Ms O’Donnell was born in New York.
A frequent subject of Mr Trump’s online attacks, Ms O’Donnell relocated to Ireland earlier this year with her 12-year-old child following the beginning of Mr Trump’s second term. In a March TikTok video, she stated she would return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”, reports RTE.
Ms O’Donnell replied to Mr Trump’s post with two Instagram updates, stating that the president is against her because she “stands in direct opposition with all he represents”.
The feud between Mr Trump and Ms O’Donnell began in 2006, when Ms O’Donnell, then a comedian and co-host on The View, ridiculed Mr Trump over his involvement in a Miss USA controversy—at the time, the pageant was owned by Mr Trump, reports RTE.
His latest remarks appear to be a response to a recent TikTok video in which Ms O’Donnell mourned the loss of 119 lives in the July 4th Texas floods, blaming the fatalities on the Trump administration’s deep cuts to environmental and scientific agencies responsible for forecasting major weather events.
“What a horror story in Texas,” Ms O’Donnell said in the video. “And you know, when the president guts all the early warning systems and the weathering forecast abilities of the government, these are the results that we’re gonna start to see on a daily basis,” reports RTE.
The Trump administration, along with state and local officials, has come under increasing scrutiny for whether more could have been done to alert and protect people before the floods hit. The flooding occurred with startling speed in the early hours of July 4 and claimed at least 120 lives, many of them children.
Mr Trump visited Texas yesterday and defended the federal response to the catastrophe, saying his administration “did an incredible job under the circumstances”, reports RTE.
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