Rosie O’Donnell has “no regrets” for choosing to leave the U.S. for Ireland with her child after President Donald Trump won the election.
The comedian told CNN’s The Situation Room Tuesday that she had already decided to leave the country if Trump won the presidency, saying that “not a day has gone by that I thought it was the wrong decision.”
“I knew after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my non-binary child to leave the country,” she said. “And although I was not one of the celebrities who announced that that’s what I would do, I made the decision within my family and my therapist should he win.”
She said that her and her 12-year-old, Clay, who is non-binary and has autism, were “gone before he was inaugurated.”
Although O’Donnell is content with building her life in Ireland, she said it has “been heartbreaking” seeing Trump pay “no mind to any of the laws that the founders stood by and that our country stands for and that is a beacon of shining light and freedom for the rest of the world.”
“It’s as bad as they promised and even a little bit worse,” she added. “And it’s been heartbreaking and personally very, very sad to watch.”
Co-hosts Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown showed O’Donnell a clip of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ranting about what he calls the autism “epidemic.”
“These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date, many of them will never use a toilet unassisted,” Kennedy said in regards to children with severe autism.
O’Donnell, whose child was diagnosed with autism at 2-years-old, called Kennedy out on his “disgraceful, dehumanizing remarks,” calling him “absolutely deplorable” and saying that he should resign or be released from his position.
“I think it’s very disrespectful, I think it’s disgraceful and I think he is wholly unqualified to be the head of health and human services,” she said.
She added: “I think most of the cabinet picks that Donald Trump has made are part of his vision of a reality show government and not the most qualified people available, especially Robert Kennedy.”
O’Donnell has been a longtime critic of Donald Trump, and the two have been at each other’s necks since O’Donnell first became a host on The View in 2006.
The president called O’Donnell a “woman out of control” after the former talk show host called him out on The View for being the “moral authority” around the 2006 Miss USA’s controversy about underage drinking and substance use.
“He annoys me on a multitude of levels. [He] left the first wife, had an affair, left the second wife, had an affair, had kids both times, but he’s the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America,” she said on the 2006 episode. “Donald, sit and spin, my friend. I don’t enjoy him.”
The two continued their back-and-forth over the years on X; Trump calling O’Donnell a “true loser” after she announced her engagement to Michelle Rounds in 2011.
I feel sorry for Rosie ‘s new partner in love whose parents are devastated at the thought of their daughter being with @Rosie–a true loser.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2011
In March, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s boyfriend, who works for Real America’s Voice, had asked Ireland Prime Minister Micheál Martin during his White House visit why he let the comedian into Ireland.
Martin didn’t appear to be familiar with O’Donnell, and the president assured him that he was “better off not knowing her.”
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