Ellen DeGeneres has thrown her support behind fellow liberal Rosie O’Donnell after President Donald Trump dropped some bad news on O’Donnell: She may be stripped of her US citizenship.
It’s an unusual alliance between two far-Left Hollywood stars who have feuded for decades.
The former talk show host took to Instagram over the weekend to support O’Donnell after she launched a series of attacks against Trump, calling him a “dangerous old soulless man.”
The confrontation began when Trump posted on his social media platform that he was giving “serious consideration” to taking away O’Donnell’s citizenship.
“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. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” Trump wrote.
O’Donnell, who fled the United States for Ireland with her 12-year-old child since January, responded with a series of inflammatory Instagram posts.
“Hey Donald – you’re rattled again? 18 years later and I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours.” She included a photo of Trump posing with Jeffrey Epstein and continued her attack, saying “You call me a threat to humanity – but I’m everything you fear: a loud woman a queer woman. A mother who tells the truth an American who got out of the country b4 u set it ablaze.”
“You crave loyalty – I teach my children to question power you sell fear on golf courses – I make art about surviving trauma you lie, you steal, you degrade – I nurture, I create, I persist. You are everything that is wrong with America… I’m not yours to silence. I never was,” O’Donnell wrote.
“You want to revoke my citizenship? Go ahead and try it, King Joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. I’m not yours to silence. I never was.” She also said she was building “a life for [her] autistic kid in a country where decency still exists.”
DeGeneres, who moved to England last year with her wife Portia De Rossi, backed O’Donnell’s anti-Trump rants despite their well-documented feud.
The two comedians have had a strained relationship dating back to 1998, when DeGeneres told Larry King she didn’t know O’Donnell and they weren’t friends. O’Donnell later said the snub “hurt my feelings like a baby, and I never really got over it.”
Both multimillionaires fled America following Trump’s election victory, with O’Donnell confirming her move in March when she told TikTok followers she had left America two months prior. DeGeneres had moved to England earlier in the year.
The feud between Trump and O’Donnell spans nearly two decades. O’Donnell has consistently criticized Trump’s presidency and policies, while Trump has repeatedly questioned her relevance.
Legal experts note that under current law, Americans cannot lose their US citizenship status even if they obtain citizenship elsewhere. It remains unclear what legal basis Trump could use to strip O’Donnell of her American citizenship, as the president does not have the unilateral power to revoke citizenship from natural-born Americans.