Rosie O’Donnell Returned to the U.S. Following Trump’s Citizenship Threat: ‘Something Is Very Wrong’

Rosie O’Donnell returned to the United States for the first time since moving to Ireland last year and realized how much has changed.

The comedian, 63, previously moved to Ireland in January 2025 shortly after President Donald Trump, with whom she’s had a longstanding feud, began his second term in office. However, she revealed during the Friday, February 13 episode of Chris Cuomo’s SirisXM show Cuomo Mornings, that she secretly returned for the first time since her big move.

“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 explained, per Entertainment Weekly.

Trump previously publicly floated the idea of revoking the A League of Their Own actress’ citizenship, at the time calling her “a Threat to Humanity.” Speaking of how it felt to be back in the United States, O’Donnell didn’t pull any punches.

“I was in New York for the last two weeks, and I have to tell you, it feels like a very different country, a very different place to me,” she told the host. “Because for a year, I haven’t been watching the news. I haven’t been watching American culture television.”

She explained that, in Ireland, “celebrity worship” doesn’t exist, and called life there more balanced. She also noted that Irish culture covers world events in a more balanced way, which has allowed her to disconnect from U.S. culture and news.

“I think I did what I needed to do to save myself, my child, and my sanity,” she added. “And I’m very happy that I’m not in the midst of it there, because the energy that I felt while I was in the United States was — if I can use the most simple word I can think of — it was scary. There’s a feeling that something is really wrong, and nobody is doing anything about it.”