Rosie O’Donnell, who relocated to Ireland with her teenage daughter just before Donald Trump took office in January 2025, made a secret trip back to the U.S. to check if it was “safe.”
“I was home for two weeks recently and I didn’t really tell anyone,” O’Donnell shared during an appearance on SiriusXM’s cuomo mornings.
“I went to visit my family. I wanted to understand how tough it is to travel in and out of the country,” she explained. “I wanted to experience it myself. I wanted to hug my kids again.”
O’Donnell expressed that she still sees the U.S. as her home, adding, “I haven’t been home in over a year,” suggesting dramatically that she needs to first ensure it’s “safe” to bring her daughter back.
“I also wanted to see if it was safe here before I brought my daughter this summer. She plans to spend her summer schooling with family here,” she said.
O’Donnell has been spending her time in Ireland criticizing the Trump administration in TikTok videos, but noted during her two weeks in New York that the U.S. feels like a “completely different country”.
“I don’t watch the news,” she affirmed. “I don’t follow American television culture. I’m in a place where celebrity worship doesn’t exist.”
“Here, the news feels more balanced. My life feels more balanced,” O’Donnell stated. “It’s a completely different culture. I felt the U.S. in a way that was unlike before I left.”
“The energy I picked up while in the U.S. was, simply put, terrifying,” the league of its own star noted. “There’s a sense that something is really wrong and no one seems to care.”
O’Donnell added, “I don’t regret leaving at all. I think I did what was necessary to protect myself, my children, and my sanity.”
