AMERICAN COMEDIAN ROSIE O’Donnell has said that she moved to Ireland from the US this year to “escape” Donald Trump, who she said “has it out” for her.

O’Donnell, an award-winning actress, made an appearance on RTÉ’s Late Late Show this evening, where she explained that she “couldn’t understand” why so many Americans supported Trump in the Presidential elections last year.

She described Trump as “a man with the personality of a teenage boy”.

Earlier this month, O’Donnell announced on social media that she had left the US to move to Ireland with her 12-year-old child in January. 

Asked by Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty about the reasons for the move, Rosie bluntly replied: “The President of the United States has it out for me”.

O’Donnell added that Trump has disliked her “for 20 years” when she spoke out against him on daytime talk show The View.

“I mentioned his bankruptcies, I mentioned all the sexual assault charges, and I mentioned that he was not, in fact, the businessman that everyone thinks he is,” O’Donnell explained.

“He was very angry, and he hasn’t let it go – he uses me as a punchline whenever he feels the need”.

The comedian told Kielty that she is in the process of Irish citizenship, and has relocated with her children to Howth.

‘I wrote the Taoiseach an apology’

A day after O’Donnell announced that she would move to Ireland, her decision received some ridicule from Trump during his meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the White House.

A conservative commentator in the Oval Office asked Martin why he “allowed” O’Donnell to move to the country – to which the Taoiseach had no reply.

O’Donnell told Kielty that hearing her name mentioned during the Taoiseach’s visit was “very surreal”.

“I felt very troubled that they put the Taoiseach in that position and didn’t treat him with the respect he deserved,” O’Donnell said.

She added that she had “wrote to the Taoiseach with a little apology note”, and said that she had received a note back from Martin, thanking her for her message.

Rosie O’Donnell on Conor McGregor's visit to the Oval Office.#latelate pic.twitter.com/uSXrgcBudb

— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) March 21, 2025

Asked for her thoughts on Conor McGregor’s recent visit to the White House, O’Donnell said: “It seems unusual to me that the President of the United States has so many friends that are sexual abusers”.

“It shows that (the US) is in trouble. To think that cruelty and lack of empathy in a value that is spouted from the highest office in our country is overwhelmingly sad to me,” O’Donnell said.