White House Attacks Rosie O'Donnell After Guest-Hosting Stint on Jimmy Kimmel Live
The White House has issued a blistering statement attacking Rosie O'Donnell after she spent the week guest-hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live, calling her "a nasty woman and a total slob whose brain has been completely destroyed by Trump Derangement Syndrome." The statement, first reported by Entertainment Weekly and confirmed in identical wording by both Variety and People (Variety; People), came on Friday, one day after O'Donnell's final night in the host's chair.
O'Donnell had been filling in for Jimmy Kimmel across the week. She opened her very first monologue on Monday with a warning for viewers: "If you thought the president hated Jimmy Kimmel Live! when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel? Buckle up, people! Buckle up" (Variety).
She kept that promise. On Thursday night's finale, O'Donnell performed a revised version of the Irish ballad "Danny Boy" — retitled "Donny Boy" — dedicated to President Trump. She signed off by thanking "everyone who's been watching this week, especially the hungry, hungry hypocrite in the White House" (Variety).
The White House did not limit its ire to O'Donnell. In the same exclusive statement to Entertainment Weekly, a spokesperson also attacked The View co-host Joy Behar — dubbing her "Joyless Behar" and describing both women as "irrelevant losers with too much time on their hands" (Entertainment Weekly). The Entertainment Weekly article carrying the statement is headlined "White House wants Joy Behar to leave U.S., slams Rosie O'Donnell."
A representative for O'Donnell declined to comment on the White House statement (Variety).
The feud between O'Donnell and Trump stretches back nearly two decades, to 2006, when O'Donnell mocked his bankruptcies while serving as a moderator on The View (Variety). The two have traded public insults on and off ever since.
O'Donnell told Variety she was "surprised" to receive the guest-hosting offer from Kimmel, given what she called their "adversarial relationship." She also used the opportunity to voice support for Kimmel's First Amendment efforts and said she wished Stephen Colbert had received similar backing, adding that Colbert "shouldn't be gone either" (Variety).
During the week, O'Donnell also revealed she has been living in Ireland for the past two years. She cited "Mango Mussolini" and Project 2025 — the conservative policy blueprint — as her reasons for leaving the United States (Variety).
What gives the White House statement its unusual weight is the office it comes from. A presidential administration using an official spokesperson to personally attack a late-night guest host — and a daytime co-host by name — moves the exchange from the realm of celebrity squabble into a question of where the line sits between political criticism and official government response. Whether that line has shifted, or simply been crossed more loudly, is something O'Donnell herself seemed to anticipate when she told her Monday audience to buckle up.
