President Trump said he was weighing using the power of the government against one of his longtime entertainment world nemeses, the comedian and actress Rosie O’Donnell, threatening to revoke her citizenship.
Shortly before 10 a.m. on Saturday, Mr. Trump said 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.”
The president called Ms. O’Donnell a “threat to humanity” and said she should stay in Ireland, where she moved to in January after Mr. Trump won a second term.
Mr. Trump’s headline-grabbing provocation about Ms. O’Donnell comes at a moment in which his administration is contending with criticism on many fronts: His top law enforcement officials are bitterly feuding over the Jeffrey Epstein saga; there remain unanswered questions about the decision to halt munitions to Ukraine and who authorized it; the homeland security chief is facing intense scrutiny over FEMA’s response in Texas; and so on.
Ms. O’Donnell snapped back at Mr. Trump with her own barrage of insults on Instagram.
“The president of the USA has always hated the fact that I see him for who he is — a criminal con man sexual abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself,” she said. “This is why I moved to Ireland.”
She further taunted the president in a subsequent post showing a photo of Mr. Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, taken in 1997 in Palm Beach, Fla.
“You want to revoke my citizenship? Go ahead and try, King Joffrey with a tangerine spray tan,” she said, referring to the sadistic child-king in “Game of Thrones.”
Experts said the president does not have the power to take away the citizenship of a U.S.-born citizen.
Julia Gelatt, associate director of the immigration program at the Migration Policy Institute, said: “U.S. citizens can relinquish their citizenship voluntarily, and federal courts can strip naturalized citizens of their citizenship if there is proven fraud or misrepresentation or other major cause. But U.S.-born citizens cannot have their citizenship taken away.”
Amanda Frost, an expert on citizenship law at the University of Virginia School of Law, cited Supreme Court precedent.
“In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Afroyim v. Rusk that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment bars the government from stripping citizenship, stating: ‘In our country the people are sovereign and the government cannot sever its relationship to the people by taking away their citizenship,’” she said in an email.
Mr. Trump’s feud with Ms. O’Donnell dates back to 2006, when she mocked the president on “The View” for defending a Miss USA contestant roiled in a controversy. She questioned his own moral compass and role as a businessman. Mr. Trump, who at the time was best known for his show, “The Apprentice,” threatened to sue “The View” over her comments.
Soon after, Mr. Trump began hurling insults at Ms. O’Donnell, calling her “fat” and “wacko.” In a 2015 G.O.P. debate on Fox News, one of the moderators said, “You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.” Mr. Trump interjected: “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”
Ashley Ahn covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.
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