US President Donald Trump says he’s considering “taking away” the citizenship of Rosie O’Donnell, who was born in the United States.<\/p>\n
O’Donnell publicly criticised Mr Trump on social media in the past week, but it’s not the first time she’s been vocal against him.<\/p>\n
Let’s look back at the history of their feud and how it escalated over the weekend.<\/p>\n
What did Trump say about O’Donnell?<\/p>\n
Mr Trump posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social, that he was “giving serious consideration to taking away her citizenship”.<\/p>\n
He said this because she was “not in the best interests of our great country” and called her a “threat to humanity”.<\/p>\n
At the moment, it appears that people cannot see the US president’s profile on the platform unless they sign up to have an account, so here’s a screenshot of that post:<\/p>\n
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Mr Trump posted about O’Donnell on Truth Social, his own social media platform.\u00a0 (Truth Social)<\/p>\n
Can Trump ‘take away’ O’Donnell’s US citizenship?<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
O’Donnell was born in the US, giving her the right to citizenship under the US Constitution.<\/p>\n
And this has been backed up by a US Supreme Court ruling way back in 1967, University of Virginia law professor Amanda Frost said.<\/p>\n
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” she said.<\/p>\n
“In short, we are a nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”<\/p>\n
US citizens can choose to renounce their citizenship, but that’s something they can only do voluntarily.<\/p>\n
That process requires two separate interviews and making what’s called an “oath of renunciation of US nationality”, according to the US Department of State’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n When he was re-elected, Mr Trump signed an executive order that would have ended the ability for the children of illegal migrants to claim birthright citizenship in the US.<\/p>\n However, that order has been blocked by a federal judge<\/a> and is expected to be tested by the US Supreme Court.<\/p>\n Either way, there has been no suggestion O’Donnell’s family circumstances would apply in those circumstances.<\/p>\n Who is O’Donnell?<\/p>\n She’s an actor, talk show host and comedian.<\/p>\n O’Donnell starred in movies including A League of Her Own, Now and Then, Sleepless in Seattle and Harriet the Spy.<\/p>\n She was a regular on daytime television, hosting a talk show called The Rosie Show from 1996 to 2002.<\/p>\n O’Donnell was also a member of the US TV talk show The View, with IMDB listing 121 appearances to her name between 2005 and 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite being born in the US, O’Donnell now lives in Ireland, having moved there after Mr Trump defeated then-vice-president Kamala Harris in last year’s election.<\/p>\n She has said she is trying to secure Irish citizenship based on her family lineage.<\/p>\n Where did the Trump and O’Donnell feud start?<\/p>\n Most US media outlets trace it back to 2006, when O’Donnell was on The View.<\/p>\n Mr Trump came up as a topic on the show after he held a press conference in his capacity as the then-owner of the Miss Universe Organization.<\/p>\n He said he would give Tara Conner “a second chance”<\/a> after threatening to strip her of her Miss USA crown amid rumours she had been frequenting bars while underage.<\/p>\n Miss USA Tara Conner and Donald Trump at a press conference in 2006.\u00a0 (AP: Rick Maiman)<\/p>\n In a clip of the show reposted to YouTube<\/a>, O’Donnell impersonates Mr Trump by sweeping her hair into a comb-over and mocking his voice, then questions his right to judge Conner.<\/p>\n “He’s the moral authority,” she said sarcastically.<\/p>\n “[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.”<\/p>\n Rosie O’Donnell impersonating Donald Trump on The View.\u00a0 (YouTube)<\/p>\n She also compared him to a con artist, criticised him for inheriting money and going bankrupt, and accused him of leaving his creditors in the lurch.<\/p>\n Mr Trump responded by giving a statement to entertainment website People<\/a>, calling O’Donnell “a real loser”.<\/p>\n “Rosie will rue the words she said,” he told People.<\/p>\n “I’ll most likely sue her for making those false statements \u2014 and it’ll be fun.”<\/p>\n Mutual dislike heightens during presidential campaign<\/p>\n The pair’s feud continued throughout the years, but ramped up as Mr Trump went into politics.<\/p>\n During Mr Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2015, he brought up O’Donnell when asked about his use of language to describe women by debate moderator Megyn Kelly<\/a>:<\/p>\n Kelly: You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs’, ‘dogs’, ‘slobs’ and disgusting animals. Your Twitter account\u2026<\/p>\n Trump: [Interrupts] Only Rosie O’Donnell<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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