Comedian Rosie O’Donnell has responded to President Donald Trump’s renewed threat to revoke her U.S. citizenship and his estimation that she is “incapable” of being a “great American.”
In Trump’s late-night threat, shared via his Truth Social platform, he posted a distorted image of the comedian and said: “We are giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship.”
Taking to Instagram, O’Donnell posted a screenshot of the threat and addressed her long-time sparring partner directly, asking of Trump: “Banishing me again?” The comedian went on to reference the ongoing push for the Trump Administration to release all the files related to convicted late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I’m the distraction. Epstein survivors are the reckoning and your gold lamé throne is melting,” she said.
O’Donnell’s reference to Epstein came hours after several of the sex offender’s victims gathered on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to implore Congress to release the files.
“It’s not okay for us to be silenced,” said Marina Lacerda, one of the women who says she was abused by Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently incarcerated.
Trump responded to the continued interest in the case, calling it a “Democrat hoax that never ends,” while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office later in the day.
“They’re trying to get people to talk about something that is totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been President,” he insisted.
The House Oversight Committee released more than 30,000 pages of documents relating to Epstein on Tuesday. However, the Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, said that only 3% of the files released contained new information.
Read More: Rosie O’Donnell Responds to Trump’s Threat to Revoke Her U.S. Citizenship
This isn’t the first time O’Donnell, who moved to Ireland after Trump’s re-election, has responded to the President’s threat to strip her U.S. citizenship, nor is it the first time she has referenced Epstein when doing so.
When Trump called her a “threat to humanity” and threatened her citizenship in July, O’Donnell rebuked the idea and publicly posted a picture of Trump and Epstein together.
“I’m everything you fear. A loud woman, a queer woman, a mother who tells the truth, an American who got out of the country before you set it ablaze. You are everything that is wrong with America—and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” said O’Donnell, alongside the image.
The timing of O’Donnell’s July response came amid renewed interest in Trump’s former relationship with Epstein.
Trump’s connection to Epstein dates back decades. In an interview with New York magazine in 2002, he said that Epstein was “a lot of fun to be with.”
“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump told the reporter.
In July 2019, NBC News’ TODAY released video footage believed to be from 1992, which showed Trump welcoming Epstein to his Mar-a-Lago estate.
After Epstein’s 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, Trump distanced himself.
Speaking in the Oval Office in 2019, Trump said: “I had a falling out with him [Epstein]. I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”
Trump also told reporters he had “never” been to the so-called “Epstein island,” and urged them instead to query if former President Bill Clinton had.
“The question you have to ask is, did Bill Clinton go to the island? Because Epstein had an island. That was not a good place, as I understand it, and I was never there.” Trump said. “So you have to ask, did Bill Clinton go to the island? That’s the question. If you find that out, you’re going to know a lot.”
Clinton, who has acknowledged being a former associate of Epstein but has vehemently denied knowledge of his crimes, denied visiting the island.
At the height of Trump’s feud with his one-time ally and donor Elon Musk, his relationship to Epstein came into focus once more. In June, Musk—in a since-deleted social media post—alleged that Trump is listed in the files related to the late financier and alleged sex trafficker. “That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk said. He did not provide evidence pertaining to this.
Read More: Amid Campaign, Trump Kept Epstein Issue at Arm’s Length. His Allies Did Not
Meanwhile, public sparring sessions between Trump and O’Donnell date back to the early 2000s, when they were both well-known New York figures.
O’Donnell criticized Trump in 2006 during an episode of the round-table talk show The View, of which she was a panelist. Trump lashed out in a celebrity-edition episode of The Apprentice at a boardroom meeting, during which he called O’Donnell “disgusting” multiple times.
Trump also brought up the comedian during his 2016 presidential campaign. In a debate with his opponent, Hillary Clinton, he said: “Rosie O’Donnell—I said very tough things to her, and I think everybody would agree that she deserves it and nobody feels sorry for her.”
O’Donnell responded at the time, saying Trump “will never be President.”
In an interview with Ireland’s RTÉ Radio 1 in July, O’Donnell reflected on her long-standing feud with Trump and said she is “very proud to be opposed to every single thing he says and does and represents.”