Rosie O’Donnell has revealed more about why she moved to Ireland following President Donald Trump‘s re-election to a second term and shared her thoughts on the “surreal” Oval Office moment where Ireland‘s prime minister was asked about her move.
Appearing on RTÉ’s Late Late Show on Friday night, O’Donnell was shown the clip of Irish prime minister Micheál Martin and Trump replying to a reporter’s question of, “Why in the world would you let Rosie O’Donnell move to Ireland? I think she’s going to lower your happiness levels.” Trump said, “I like that question” as he asked Martin if he knew of O’Donnell and said he was “better off” not knowing.
She said after the “very, very surreal” moment she apologized to Martin.
“I felt very troubled that they put the taoiseach (Irish prime minister) in that position and didn’t treat him with the respect that a leader of that kind deserves when he’s visiting The White House,” she said. “I wrote the taoiseach with a little note apology to his email and got a note back that they had received it and thanked me. But I just wanted him to know the history and what happened and why he seems to be out to get me in ways that are startling to most.”
Indeed, O’Donnell recalled how her feud with Trump dates back to 2006 and comments she made about him when she was a co-host on ABC’s The View.
“I told the truth about him on a program called The View where it was my job to talk about pop culture and politics, and I mentioned his bankruptcies and I mentioned all of the sexual assault charges and I mentioned that he was not, in fact the businessman that everyone thinks he is because of the show, The Apprentice, where they sold a bunch of lies to America for over 10 years and half of America believed it,” she said. “And so he was very angry to say the least, and he hasn’t let it go. And he sort of uses me as a punchline whenever he feels the need.”
Earlier she said of him continuing to invoke her, “He’s been doing it for two decades and I’m still not used to it every time he does.”
O’Donnell revealed that the plans for her move, which she made two months ago, arriving on Jan. 15, shortly before Trump’s second inaugural, had been in the works (though seen as an unlikely possibility) since Trump was the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election.
Indeed, the plan she said she came up with with her therapist if Trump won, “which none of us thought was going to happen,” she said, was “only [to move to] Ireland. My grandparents are from here. … I’m a hundred percent Irish on my 23 and me. So there was no option. It’s not like people said, why didn’t you go to Italy or France? I’m like, because I’m Irish. So I went to Ireland and I have to tell you that it’s really felt like home since I’ve been here.”
O’Donnell also wondered aloud about Trump’s victory amid Elon Musk‘s support, saying, “I question why for the first time in American history, a president has won every swing state and is also best friends and his largest donor was a man who owns and runs the internet,” O’Donnell said. “I would hope that would be investigated and that we would see whether or not it was an anomaly or something else that happened on election night in America when Kamala Harris was filling up stadiums with people who supported her and Donald Trump was not able to do that. So it’s curious to me, and as an American and a believer in democracy, I would hope that we would be able to look at all of the reasons why this happened in our country.”
Musk, who owns X (formerly Twitter), contributed at least $250 million to help Trump win the 2024 election.
Though she stayed in the U.S. during Trump’s first term, O’Donnell said she was mostly concerned about the power the president was given by the Supreme Court ahead of Trump’s second term and wanted to protect her autistic child.
“He disbanded the Department of Education, and I have a child who has autism and that child will be denied services and many, many autistic children because the funding for these programs for special needs children comes from the federal government as well as the states. And it’s going to be disastrous for children on the spectrum. And that was terrifying,” she said. “But the biggest reason that it was different than the first time he was in office is because of the Supreme Court giving him ultimate power, the powers of a king or a monarch. And that’s not what the United States is all about. And it’s a terrifying prospect. And in fact, what has happened since he’s taken office has been terrifying, I think for the world and definitely for the United States of America.”
Elaborating on her child, Clay, O’Donnell said they “should not have to live in a place where our safety is compromised and where they have to worry about strangers coming up to us in stores and commenting on my opinion of Trump or his followers are sometimes as uncouth as he, and it’s not fair to my daughter. And I wanted to make sure that they would be calm and I would be calm enough to be their parents because that’s what my child needs is mom in control and calm and not absolutely overwhelmed by the state of the world.”
But Clay is “loving it” in Ireland, O’Donnell said: “She did tell me at dinner about two weeks ago, ‘Mommy, I like it here better. You can just be a normal person.’ And I said, ‘Isn’t that great?’”
O’Donnell was asked if there was “any part” of her that felt that she should be in the U.S. “fighting against some of the stuff that you do disagree with.”
“Yes. A large part of me does that” she said. “And that’s really what I’ve done my whole career. I’ve stood up for civil rights and gay rights and women’s rights my whole life. And so it’s in me to stand up and protest and fight, but I have an autistic child.”
As for when she would possibly return to the U.S., O’Donnell said she’d “like to stay until my daughter is out of high school and she’ll be entering secondary school in August.”
“But my son, Blake, I have five children and my son Blake got married in August, and I know when they have that first child, it’s going to call me home because I love nothing more than a newborn baby,” she added.
Prior to her talk show appearance, in a TikTok video posted Thursday, O’Donnell said she has experienced mental health benefits since her move.
“It’s not easy to move to another country, and we really felt as a family this was the safest and best thing for us to do and it looks like sadly, we were correct for what’s happening in the United States is overwhelmingly depressing, unconstitutional, illegal, criminal and so, so very sad,” she said. “I feel healthier. I’m sleeping better without the stress and anxiety over what was happening politically in the country.”