Comedian Rosie O’Donnell, who moved to Ireland shortly before Donald Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, admitted that she recently visited the United States in secret — and that she has no regrets about leaving the country.
During a recent interview with SiriusXM’s Chris Cuomo, O’Donnell said her trip marked her first time stateside in over a year. The 63-year-old, who has long been an extremely vocal opponent of Trump, left for Ireland alongside her teenage daughter ahead of Trump’s return to office.
O’Donnell told Cuomo that she has tried to avoid following the news or keeping up with “American culture television.” Her Instagram page arguably tells a different story, though, as she frequently shares anti-Trump content, even posting images of the president and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
IRISH ENTRANCE: Rosie O’Donnell quietly returned to the U.S. for a break from her self-imposed exile, which began when Trump took office again.
“I just went to see my family. I wanted to see how hard it would be for me to get in and out of the country,” she said. pic.twitter.com/DYNtFKiPzC
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 14, 2026
“And I’m very happy that I’m not in the midst of it there because the energy that I felt while in the United States … was scary,” O’Donnell said. “There’s a feeling that something is really wrong, and no one is doing anything about it.”
O’Donnell previously said she was applying for Irish citizenship, and Trump threatened to revoke her U.S. citizenship last summer. However, because O’Donnell was born in New York, she is a U.S. citizen by birth. O’Donnell later clarified that she is a “very proud” U.S. citizen and will never renounce her citizenship.
“I’ve been in a place where celebrity worship does not exist,” O’Donnell said. “I’ve been in a place where there’s more balance to the news. There’s more balance to life. It’s not everyone trying to get more, more, more. It’s a very different culture. And I felt the United States in a completely different way than I ever had before I left.”
Rosie O’Donnell: “And I don’t know, Nicolle, how it is that some people cannot see it. My therapist said, ‘Why are you so upset?’ [over Trump] And I said to her, ‘Why are you not!?'”pic.twitter.com/pMktE81nuS
— Joe Rogan Podcast News (@joeroganhq) February 9, 2026
O’Donnell’s return to the U.S. came amid a hectic start to the new year. Major cities such as Minneapolis and Los Angeles have been sites of continued protests against the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Trump administration. There were at least three Department of Homeland Security-involved shootings in Minnesota last month, two of which were fatal.
Although her family remains in the United States, O’Donnell said she feels she made the right decision in moving to Ireland. There is no indication that O’Donnell is considering returning to the U.S., either in the near future or following the 2028 election. Barring a change to the Constitution, Trump would be unable to run for reelection because it would mean a third term in office.
O’Donnell also did not say whether any of her family plans to join her in Ireland.
