Rosie O’Donnell Blames Trump for Missing Her Daughter’s College Graduation: ‘Security People Said They Didn’t Think It was Wise’

Rosie O’Donnell has long been one of Hollywood’s loudest critics of President Donald Trump, but her feud has now spilled into her personal life in ways that reveal just how deeply politics has consumed her. Speaking on the No Filter podcast with Entertainment Weekly, O’Donnell admitted that she skipped her daughter’s college graduation here in the United States because of what she described as security concerns.

“My daughter graduated college and I didn’t go back because the security people said to me they didn’t think it was wise,” O’Donnell said. “Because I think Trump will use me to rile his base.”

For any parent, missing a child’s graduation is a painful choice. But O’Donnell’s reasoning underscores how much she views her public identity through the lens of her political battle with Trump. Rather than celebrating her daughter’s achievement, she opted to remain overseas—another example of how celebrity politics can become so consuming that family moments take a back seat.

O’Donnell has not lived in the United States since the president’s election in November 2024. She relocated to Ireland, telling Variety at the time that she had no plans to return. “With the current political climate, when would it be safe to come back with my child? I’m not going to push it before this administration is completely finished, and hopefully held accountable for their crimes,” she said.

The actress has never hidden her disdain for Trump, and in the years since leaving the U.S., the rhetoric has only escalated. What began as a tabloid-style feud back in the 2000s has now turned into a decades-long fixation, with O’Donnell portraying herself as a target of a president she insists is dangerous. For conservatives watching from the outside, it highlights how the entertainment class often frames disagreement as personal persecution, while ordinary Americans are expected to keep working, paying taxes, and raising families without fanfare.

The feud hit a new peak last Wednesday when the president announced that he was “giving serious consideration” to revoking O’Donnell’s citizenship, despite her being a natural-born American citizen. “As previously mentioned, we are giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship. She is not a Great American and is, in my opinion, incapable of being so!!” he wrote.

It wasn’t the first time the president raised the idea. As far back as July, he suggested O’Donnell’s relentless attacks might merit such action. While the Constitution leaves little room for stripping citizenship from someone born in the United States, the fact that the president would float it at all speaks to how bitter their war of words has become.

O’Donnell, never one to retreat, fired back with some of her harshest accusations yet. She labeled the president a “serial pedophile rapist” who “paid a billion dollars to Jeffrey Epstein.” Speaking to former CNN anchor Jim Acosta on his podcast, O’Donnell elaborated: “He paid a billion dollars to Jeffrey Epstein over the time of their friendship. A billion dollars. He wrote in his birthday book here’s to all the secrets. If this were an Angela Hansberry Murder She Wrote, people would be ‘It’s too obvious.”

She continued with a wide-ranging attack that portrayed Trump not only as corrupt but as a threat to the nation itself. “He is guilty as sin. Before he brings more troops into Chicago and harasses more brown-skin people; before he breaks more of the Constitute apart; before he starts having people get killed, we have to do something about him, America. It’s time for every person with a platform to speak out about it. Now or never.”

These remarks show how, for O’Donnell, the personal feud has transformed into something more—a stage from which to launch broader political claims, no matter how extreme. Her language, often unrestrained and incendiary, plays into the broader cultural divide where celebrity activists position themselves as moral arbiters while dismissing the voices of everyday Americans who see politics through the lens of common sense and stability.

The contrast is striking. While millions of parents balance work, family, and personal hardship to show up for their children’s milestones, O’Donnell turned hers into a political statement. While countless Americans remain in their communities, engaging with their neighbors despite political differences, she chose self-imposed exile abroad. And while many citizens worry about crime, inflation, and national security, O’Donnell remains focused on prolonging her feud with a president who has become the centerpiece of her public identity.

For conservatives, this story isn’t just about Rosie O’Donnell. It’s about the culture of celebrity activism that elevates political grudges over personal responsibility, and how out of touch it can appear to the average American family simply trying to live their lives with dignity and purpose.