ADVERTISEMENTUS President Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a decades-old Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits such an action by the government.
Trump labelled O’Donnell as a “threat to humanity” in a social media post on Saturday, adding: “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 added that O’Donnell, who moved to Ireland in January, should stay in Ireland “if they want her.”
This follows a longtime rivalry between the two, who have criticized each other publicly for years. Their bitter back-and-forth predates Trump’s involvement in politics.
In 2006, O’Donnell criticized Trump for remarks he made about a winner of his Miss USA beauty pageant, saying he had no right to be a “moral compass” for the beauty queen.
That unleashed a series of barbs from Trump, who called O’Donnell a “loser” and “slob,” among other insults. In turn, O’Donnell questioned his business skills and compared him to a “snake oil salesman.”
In 2015, during Trump’s first presidential campaign, O’Donnell said: “It’s a nightmare”, and further took him to task over his crude remarks about women.
In recent days, O’Donnell on social media denounced Trump and recent moves by his administration, including the signing of a massive GOP-backed tax breaks and spending cuts plan.
This is just the latest threat by Trump to revoke the citizenship of people with whom he has publicly disagreed, most recently his former adviser and one-time ally, Elon Musk.
However, O’Donnell’s situation is different from Musk, who was born in South Africa. O’Donnell was born in the United States and has a constitutional right to US citizenship.
The US State Department notes on its website that US citizens by birth or naturalization may relinquish US nationality by taking certain steps – but only if the act is performed voluntary and with the intention of relinquishing US citizenship.
Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, noted the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the Fourteen Amendment of the Constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” Frost said. “In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Trump defeatedVice President Kamala Harris to win his second term. She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage, and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
Responding to Trump’s most recent threat, O’Donnell wrote on social media that Trump “has always hated the fact that I see him for who he is – a criminal con man sexual abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself – this is whyI moved to Ireland – he is a dangerous old soulless man with dementia who lacks empathy compassion and basic humanity.”
She also posted a photograph of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein on Instagram, adding: “You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it.”
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
