Rosie O’Donnell opened up her second night of hosting Jimmy Kimmel’s show by twisting the knife on President Donald Trump’s humiliating catering truck escape from Air Force One.
The actress and Trump nemesis began Tuesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! by taunting the president, 80, for the unorthodox way he fled the alleged Iranian assassination plot.
“I’m so grateful to be filling in for Jimmy and to be hosting a talk show on network TV once again,” began O’Donnell, 64.
“This has been kind of a strange experience for me because all of a sudden I’m re-famous,” she continued. “I’m back in the spotlight, all thanks to President Oompa J. Loompa, who is watching us this evening from inside a catering cart.”
Last week, it was revealed that the president snuck away from Air Force One in a catering cart, switching aircraft before heading home from Turkey, where he attended a NATO summit with other world leaders last month. The switch came amid an alleged Iranian plot to target the plane.
Though the administration pulled off the maneuver and kept it under wraps for weeks, it has been mercilessly mocked since.
O’Donnell concluded, “You know, I couldn’t have done it without you, sweetie. You brought me back, just like you did with fascism and the measles.”
Jimmy Kimmel handpicked O’Donnell as “a special treat” for the president as part of his summer rotation of stand-in hosts. Kimmel’s burgeoning feud with the president is far fresher than that of O’Donnell’s.
Trump and O’Donnell have publicly had bad blood since 2006, when the latter was still a host on The View.
O’Donnell didn’t waste too much time on the president during her second night filling in for Kimmel. As the Hollywood Reporter put it, O’Donnell seemed to be intentionally veering away from being too “Trump obsessed” during her monologues—a move that the publication called “refreshing.”
O’Donnell’s first monologue focused on her move to Ireland, which has repeatedly drawn Trump’s ire. In response to her move, Trump once posted a heavily edited photograph of O’Donnell on Truth Social, writing, “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!”
O’Donnell, in turn, responded with a fiery Instagram post, writing, “Hey donald –you’re rattled again? 18 years later and I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours.”
“you are everything that is wrong with america – and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she said.
O’Donnell retold her story and explained her decision to leave America, but didn’t name the president. To conclude, she said, “You know, right now he’s in the White House crying because I haven’t mentioned him.”
Once again, O’Donnell didn’t say his name. The veteran talk show host has two more days as Kimmel’s replacement host.
She said she’s thankful to have Kimmel’s gig, telling Kara Swisher earlier this month, “I plan on doing whatever we can and working with the writers and his team and honoring just how brave and bold he has been.”
