Rosie O’Donnell taunted President Trump in her first-ever Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue with a special message.
O’Donnell has long attracted the ire of President Trump, to the point where he regularly insults her in public and posts demeaning AI videos of her on his Truth Social account.
Making her debut on Kimmel and smiling at the camera on Monday night, O’Donnell spoke directly to the president: “Hi, I know you’re watching.”
In one moment in her monologue, the 64-year-old referenced the president’s problems not only with herself, but with Kimmel.
“The President hated Jimmy Kimmel Live! when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel,” O’Donnell told viewers, adding, “Buckle up, people.”
O’Donnell focused largely on her experience in Ireland, and she made it throughout her entire monologue without ever mentioning Trump by name. While MAGA pundits have painted her as being consumed by her hatred of Trump, O’Donnell mostly talked about how she’s spent the past two years enjoying a peaceful life in her new home.
Trump has repeatedly mocked O’Donnell’s move to Ireland, threatening to revoke her American citizenship in July 2025. O’Donnell fired back on Instagram shortly afterward, writing, “Hey donald –you’re rattled again? 18 years later and I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours.”
On Kimmel, O’Donnell explained how she had moved to Ireland following Trump’s 2024 election win: “I read that Project 2025 and said, ‘Got to get myself out of here!’”
She added, “And I decided to go to Ireland, a place where people are driven to drink regardless of who’s running their country.”
O’Donnell recalled how her child had told her classmates about their move overseas, “I’m very sorry. I won’t be able to graduate sixth grade with you. I’m being forced to move to another country because the president of the United States hates my mother. But in all fairness, I believe my mother hates him more.’”
At the end of her monologue O’Donnell slyly added, “You know, right now he’s in the White House crying because I haven’t mentioned him.”
Kimmel first announced O’Donnell would be hosting his show in his final show of the season in late June, describing the pick as a “special treat for our commander-in-chief.”
“I seem to be, you know, the obsession he can’t get rid of,” O’Donnell said in a July interview with Jake Tapper. “He’s obsessed with Barack Obama, and I think that’s because he’s innately a racist. And he’s obsessed with me because he’s innately a sexist.”
O’Donnell revealed to Variety this week that she’d been surprised when Kimmel asked her to host the show, given that the two had once been “adversarial.”
“When my publicist called and said, ‘Do you want to guest-host ‘Kimmel’ for a week?’ I said, ‘I haven’t ever even been a guest!’” O’Donnell recalled. “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.’”
“I was surprised, to tell you the truth,” O’Donnell said, “and very thankful.”
