Actress and expatriate Rosie O’Donnell joined CNN’s Tuesday installment of The Situation Room to promote a new documentary about her, her autistic daughter, and her service dog. Before that, however, host Wolf Blitzer had to discuss politics, which included O’Donnell’s flight to Ireland on behalf of her “non-binary child” and watching President Trump “destroy the country.”
Blitzer wondered, “As you know, some people entertained the idea of moving abroad after the 2024 election. You actually did it. Tell us about your experience so far, and do you have any regrets?”
O’Donnell claimed she did not, “I have no regrets. Not a day has gone by that I thought it was the wrong decision. I was welcomed with open arms. I knew after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my non-binary child to leave the country.”
She continued, “And although I was not one of the celebrities who announced that that's what I would do, I made the decision within my family and my therapist, and should he win, and then when he did, we made the plan into action, and we were gone before he was inaugurated.
It should be noted that O’Donnell’s child is only 12 and apparently came to this conclusion when she was 10. According to O’Donnell, Dakota, who now goes by Clay, has taught her such things as “gender is infinite,” which is not true whether it’s coming from a 10-year old or a 50-year old. If the debate is between Trump, who does not believe 10-year olds should be authoritative voices on gender, and O’Donnell, who does, that is a debate she is going to lose every time.
Still, Blitzer was not done, “You've been a longtime critic of this Trump administration and a target of President Trump for that matter as well. What has it been like watching the last few months unfold from abroad?”
In response, O’Donnell claimed that, “It has been heartbreaking; I have to tell you. I knew that if I was in the United States and watched him destroy the country and the Constitution and really pay no mind to any of the laws that the Founders stood by and that our country stands for as a beacon of shining light and freedom for the rest of the world, that should he do what the Heritage Foundation said he was going to do in that Project 2025, that we were going to be in big trouble. And it's as bad as they promised and even a little bit worse, and it's been heartbreaking and personally very, very sad to watch.”
O’Donnell’s newfound patriotism is too little, too late. She’s previously compared the U.S. military to terrorists and promoted conspiracy theories about George W. Bush cheating in 2000 and 9/11. But just in case anyone thinks she’s changed, she is still in the conspiracy business: on March 21, O’Donnell went on Ireland’s The Late Late Show and offered up a bit of election-denying conspiracy mongering on why Trump won:
I question why the first time in American history a president has won every swing state and is also best friends and his largest donor [Elon Musk] was a man who owns and runs the Internet. So I would hope that that would be investigated and that we would see whether or not it was an anomaly or something else that happened on election night in America when Kamala Harris was filling up stadiums with people who supported her and Donald Trump was not able to do that.”
Maybe it is best for everyone if O’Donnell stays in Ireland.
Here is a transcript for the April 22 show:
CNN The Situation Room
4/22/2025
10:25 AM ET
WOLF BLITZER: As you know, some people entertained the idea of moving abroad after the 2024 election. You actually did it. Tell us about your experience so far, and do you have any regrets?
ROSIE O'DONNELL: I have no regrets. Not a day has gone by that I thought it was the wrong decision. I was welcomed with open arms. I knew after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my non-binary child to leave the country.And although I was not one of the celebrities who announced that that's what I would do, I made the decision within my family and my therapist, and should he win, and then when he did, we made the plan into action, and we were gone before he was inaugurated.
BLITZER: You've been a longtime critic of this Trump administration and a target of President Trump for that matter as well. What has it been like watching the last few months unfold from abroad?
O'DONNELL: It has been heartbreaking; I have to tell you. I knew that if I was in the United States and watched him destroy the country and the Constitution and really pay no mind to any of the laws that the Founders stood by and that our country stands for as a beacon of shining light and freedom for the rest of the world, that should he do what the Heritage Foundation said he was going to do in that Project 2025, that we were going to be in big trouble. And it's as bad as they promised and even a little bit worse, and it's been heartbreaking and personally very, very sad to watch.
