The Beauty Pageant Scandal That Ignited Rosie O’Donnell’s Feud With Donald Trump
Of all of the threats facing the United States, global, economic and existential, why does President Donald Trump expend so much emotional energy on comedian Rosie O’Donnell?
Even though the comic currently resides overseas, Trump is rattling sabers in her direction on his personal social media platform. “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,” he Posted, employing his Trademark brand of erratic word Capitalization.
Don’t Miss
While O’Donnell is defiantly critical of Trump on her own social media channels, the roots of their feud weren’t planted in this presidential term — or his last. The bad feelings date back to 2006, according to Variety, when O’Donnell roasted Trump on an episode of The View.
Well before Trump ran for public office, he indulged in a variety of business ventures, including ownership of the Miss USA pageant. Hey, on brand! In 2006, the current Miss USA, Tara Conner, became embroiled in a scandal for underage drinking, snorting cocaine and kissing Miss Teen USA in a nightclub. Sounds like Trump’s kinda gal, and indeed, he determined that the blonde beauty deserved a second chance despite her indiscretions.
For a comedian on The View, it was the perfect mix of sordid behavior and celebrity hypocrisy. “He’s the moral authority!” O’Donnell mocked, detailing Trump’s infidelities and financial failings, “jokes that probably really freaked him out,” according to Joy Behar. Rubbing it in, the comic flopped her hair over her head in a hilarious impression of Trump’s comb-over pompadour, mocking the tycoon fawning over his beauty queen: “Everyone deserves a second chance!”
Trump was furious, considering O’Donnell was near the height of her popularity and even a guest at his second wedding. The rift deepened when O’Donnell alleged on The View that “he’s been bankrupt so many times, where he didn’t have to pay.”
Careful now, Rosie. “He sues, you know?” cautioned Behar.
Barbara Walters, doing damage control, made a careful statement in the show’s next episode explaining that while some of Trump’s businesses had gone bankrupt, he’d never personally declared bankruptcy. The ensuing back-and-forth with Trump led to O’Donnell quitting The View less than a year after her well-publicized hire.
That should have been the end of that, except that Trump is great at holding grudges. After years of no public spats, he brought up O’Donnell again in the 2016 debates. Megyn Kelly asked the candidate about his troubling way of discussing women as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”
“Only Rosie O’Donnell!” Trump interrupted, getting a big laugh from the audience.
It’s a go-to punchline for Trump, referencing O’Donnell out of the blue when discussing matters that have nothing to do with her.
Nearly 20 years after the fact, she’s still under his skin to the point that he’s threatening to revoke her citizenship. O’Donnell, firing back from her Ireland home, doesn’t seem afraid of the man she dubs “king joffrey with a tangerine spray tan.”
“You are everything that is wrong with america,” she posted on Instagram, “and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it.”
