Comedian Rosie O’Donnell has quietly returned to the United States after spending more than a year living abroad following a very public departure while lambasting President Donald Trump’s re-election.
O’Donnell moved with her teenage daughter to Ireland just before Trump was inaugurated for a second time in January of 2025. She apparently decided to return to the United States, dramatically claiming she had to see if it “was safe.” Note, she still calls the United States “home.” O’Donnell disclosed the visit during an appearance on SiriusXM’s Cuomo Mornings, hosted by Chris Cuomo:
“I was recently home for two weeks, and I did not really tell anyone,” she told Cuomo. “I just went to see my family. I wanted to see how hard it would be for me to get in and out of the country. I wanted to feel what it felt like. I wanted to hold my children again. And I hadn’t been home in over a year.”
She said the trip was also meant to assess whether it would be safe for her and her daughter to return later this year. O’Donnell noted that she “wanted to make sure that it was safe” for them to come back during her daughter’s summer school break so they could spend time with relatives.
O’Donnell told Cuomo that the U.S. now “feels like a very different country” to her, adding that she has avoided American news and television while living overseas. “I’ve been in a place where celebrity worship does not exist,” she explained. “I’ve been in a place where there’s more balance to the news. There’s more balance to life. It’s not everyone trying to get more, more, more. It’s a very different culture. And I felt the United States in a completely different way than I ever had before I left.”
O’Donnell said she has no regrets about leaving the country. She stated that she did “what I needed to do to save myself, my child and my sanity.”
“And I’m very happy that I’m not in the midst of it there because the energy that I felt while in the United States was — if I could use the most simple word I can think of — it was scary,” she added. “There’s a feeling that something is really wrong, and no one is doing anything about it.”
Fox News notes how the longtime feud between O’Donnell and Trump dates back roughly two decades to her criticism of him on The View. O’Donnell revealed in an October 2025 interview with The Daily Telegraph that she was applying for Irish citizenship. “What great news for America!” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital at the time.
In response to O’Donnell’s move to Ireland he flirted with threats to revoke her U.S. citizenship, posting on Truth Socialin July 2025: “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!”
O’Donnell immediately repelled the idea and certainly would not revoke her citizenship of the country she has so much hate for: “He can’t do that because it’s against the Constitution, and even the Supreme Court has not given him the right to do that. … He’s not allowed to do that. The only way you’re allowed to take away someone’s citizenship is if they renounce it themselves, and I will never renounce my American citizenship,” the “Now and Then” star said. “I am a very proud citizen of the United States.”
She added that she intends to pursue dual citizenship.
“I am also getting my citizenship here so I can have dual citizenship in Ireland and the United States because I enjoy living here,” she said. “It’s very peaceful. I love the politics of the country. I love the people and their generous hearts and spirit. And it’s been very good for my daughter. But I still want to maintain my citizenship in the United States. My children are there. I will be there visiting and go to see them. And I have the freedom to do that, as does every American citizen.”