Rosie O’Donnell took another shot at Donald Trump during her debut as guest host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
O’Donnell, 64, opened her weeklong hosting stint on August 17 with a monologue that leaned heavily into her self-imposed exile to Ireland and her longstanding feud with the president. The comedian had relocated to Ireland following Trump’s 2024 election victory, a move she said was prompted by reading Project 2025, the far-right policy blueprint that outlined rollbacks on LGBTQ+, women’s, and minority rights.
“If you thought the president hated Jimmy Kimmel Live! When it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, buckle up, people,” O’Donnell said audience in her opening monologue.
She framed her return to late-night after nearly three decades with biting irony. “I haven’t sat behind a desk on TV in almost 30 years and a lot has changed since the ’90s,” she said. “Well, back then, there was a war in the Middle East. Climate change was ravaging our planet, we had a president who was embroiled in scandals. But today, everything is so chill.”
The former View co-host explained her relocation in starkly personal terms. “I’ve been living in Ireland the last two years because of ‘Mango Mussolini’,” she quipped, using a nickname she has previously deployed on social media. She elaborated on her decision-making: “I read that Project 2025 and said, ‘I’ve gotta get myself out of here.’ I decided to go to Ireland, a place where people are driven to drink regardless of who’s running their country.”
O’Donnell shared an anecdote about moving with her then-11-year-old child, who is non-binary. “I decided to move and I took my little then-11-year-old kid with me and I just said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t tell anyone. We don’t want a lot of press and a lot of paparazzi. So, please don’t tell anyone’,” she recounted. She continued: “They’re a pretty smart kid, they got it. They said, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t,’ and then went to school and proceeded to tell their entire class [they were moving to another country] because ‘the President of the United States hates my mother. But, in all fairness, I believe my mother hates him more’.”
The comedian expressed affection for her adopted home, telling the audience: “I want to send my love to the people of Ireland. You are the kindest people I’ve ever met and I promise you, I’ll be home soon.” She then pivoted back to Trump, joking: “Right now, he’s in the White House crying because I haven’t mentioned him.”
Kimmel, 57, had announced in June that he personally recruited O’Donnell for the gig, explicitly framing it as provocation. “As a special treat for our commander in chief, I asked one of his all-time favorites, Rosie O’Donnell, to be here to keep the hits coming,” Kimmel said in his announcement. He added: “All I ask in return, Mr. President, is that you don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.”
O’Donnell said that she was surprised by the invitation given their historically “adversarial relationship.” “We’ve never spoken on the phone; we’ve texted a few times,” she said in the interview. “Jimmy was never a fan of mine, and it was kind of an adversarial relationship — not that I was fighting back, but I was like, ‘OK, one of the bro guys’.” She noted that their dynamic shifted after Kimmel’s first responder uncle died, when she reached out and he responded. When her publicist relayed the hosting offer, O’Donnell recalled: “I said, ‘I haven’t ever even been a guest!’ And then I said, ‘If you’re positive that that’s an actual offer and he wants me to do it, then I most certainly will’.”
In the viral moment that launched their feud, O’Donnell criticized Trump during a 2006 episode of The View, mocking his hair, his accent, and his business bankruptcies. Trump responded with sustained public attacks, calling her “fat,” “a slob,” and “a real loser” across multiple interviews and later on social media. The hostility became a recurring feature of his public persona, with Trump continuing to reference O’Donnell unfavorably throughout his 2016 campaign and first presidency. O’Donnell has said the decades-long targeting left her with what she described as PTSD, telling Kara Swisher’s podcast in July that she was beginning to “reclaim” herself after being traumatized by Trump using her “as a punchline” for years.
O’Donnell has dismissed speculation that she might take over the show permanently. Her guest hosting run continues through the week on ABC.