Kathy Griffin is keenly aware of what it’s like to publicly beef with the U.S. president — and she has a bold theory about Rosie O’Donnell‘s feud with President Donald Trump.
For nearly two decades, O’Donnell, 63, and Trump, 79, have exchanged sharp words. The A League of Their Own actress frequently criticized the former Apprentice star while hosting The View. And Trump has often slammed O’Donnell on social media and in the press. Most recently, he suggested he might revoke her U.S. citizenship, to which she issued a scathing takedown of the threat.
During the August 28 episode of Chelsea Handler‘s Dear Chelsea podcast, Griffin opened up about the infamous photo she published in 2017 depicting herself holding Trump’s severed head and how it relates to “Trump and his machine” targeting O’Donnell.
“When my incident happened, it was three days after Robert Mueller was appointed,” Griffin explained of the former FBI director overseeing the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“I think that’s why he used me as that deflection,” she continued before making her blunt declaration. “I think he went after Rosie last weekend because he’s on videotape with Jeffrey Epstein dancing at a party with minors.”
On July 12, Trump took to Truth Social with a head-turning post about the former Rosie O’Donnell Show host.
“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,” he wrote, per the Daily Mail. “She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
The next day, O’Donnell, who moved to Ireland in January 2025, responded to the POTUS on Instagram. “Hey Donald — you’re rattled again? 18 years later and I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours,” she wrote next to a photo of Trump with his arm around Epstein.
She continued, “You call me a threat to humanity — but I’m everything you fear: a loud woman a queer woman a mother who tells the truth an American who got out of the country b4 u set it ablaze,” she continued. “You build walls — I build a life for my autistic kid in a country where decency still exists. You crave loyalty — I teach my children to question power. You sell fear on golf courses — I make art about surviving trauma. You lie, you steal, you degrade — I nurture, I create, I persist. You are everything that is wrong with America — and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it.”
In conclusion, O’Donnell name-dropped a widely hated Game of Thrones character, writing, “You want to revoke my citizenship? Go ahead and try, King Joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. I’m not yours to silence I never was 🇮🇪 Rosie.”