President Donald Trump on Saturday said he is considering revoking the citizenship of one of his longtime foes — actor and comedian Rosie O’Donnell — something he has no clear legal pathway to do.
The move is an escalation of Trump’s weaponization of American citizenship. While the president has enacted mass deportations for immigrants and looked to end birthright citizenship for the children of some immigrants, his threat to revoke the New York-born actor’s citizenship marks a new frontier.
“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!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday morning. O’Donnell currently resides in Ireland.
The White House declined to comment on whether Trump was serious about the threat, or how he would revoke the American actor’s citizenship — a move for which there is no clear legal precedent.
The Trump administration has sought to severely curtail paths to citizenship — and pursued ways of stripping some Americans of their citizenship altogether — as Trump aims to narrow the definition of what it means to be an American.
The president has looked to end birthright citizenship, declaring in a January executive order that babies born in the U.S. may not be considered citizens unless one or more of their parents is an American citizen or permanent resident.
The move prompted a legal battle over the constitutionality of Trump’s executive order, with a federal judge in New Hampshire this week blocking the order just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an earlier decision was too broad.
The administration has also pursued tactics to denaturalize some citizens. In a June 11 memo, Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate wrote that the Justice Department’s civil division would “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings” for naturalized citizens — people who received their citizenship not via birthright — who have committed certain crimes.
Trump has also questioned the citizenship of other would-be political rivals — including New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a naturalized citizen.
