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Rosie O\u2019Donnell says that she\u2019s beginning to \u201creclaim\u201d herself after being traumatized by President Trump using her \u201cas a punchline\u201d for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am softer I think as a result of being there, of the welcome that we got [in Ireland], and as a result of me not being constantly bombarded by news about the current president,\u201d O\u2019Donnell\u00a0told People magazine<\/a>\u00a0in an interview published Wednesday. The 64-year-old comedian and frequent critic of the president\u00a0moved to<\/a>\u00a0Ireland last year because of what she described at the time as a \u201cheartbreaking\u201d political situation in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a post-traumatic stress disorder for me, considering it\u2019s been 20 years of him using me as a punchline, and so I think that has allowed me to reclaim myself, who I was before all that went down, even though it\u2019s very strange to have supposedly the most powerful man in the world be your arch nemesis,\u201d the former \u201cView\u201d co-host said.\u00a0<\/p>\n O\u2019Donnell and Trump have had a long-running feud\u00a0dating back<\/a>\u00a0to 2006 that\u2019s played out in public. The comic has called Trump a \u201ccriminal\u201d and a \u201ccon man,\u201d while the president has referred to O\u2019Donnell as a \u201cthreat to humanity\u201d and said last year that he was \u201cseriously considering\u201d\u00a0revoking her<\/a>\u00a0American citizenship.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to be when our president would say things about me, it would be like, whoa,\u201d O\u2019Donnell, who\u2019s starring in a one-woman show in New York called \u201cCommon Knowledge,\u201d told People.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, if you had written this as a movie, a stand-up comic makes fun of a reality show host who is a bloviating idiot and he ends up being the president, and then he doesn\u2019t shut up about her for 20 years, it would be unbelievable \u2014 and the fact that it\u2019s my life is very trippy,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n O\u2019Donnell also expressed excitement about filling in as a guest host for a late-night show headlined by one of Trump\u2019s other\u00a0high-profile critics<\/a>: Jimmy Kimmel.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very happy that [Kimmel] asked me,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said of being scheduled to appear on \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d in mid-August.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI admire him. I admire his tenacity and strength. I admire his conviction to speak out against this political terrorism that\u2019s happening in our country and I stand beside him and will,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said of Kimmel.<\/p>\n \u201cI am a very patriotic American,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI love this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/em><\/p>\n