Rosie O’Donnell managed to taunt President Donald Trump without directly mentioning his name in her guest-hosting debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
“If you thought the president hated Jimmy Kimmel Live! when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, buckle up, people,” O’Donnell, 64, began her monologue during the Monday, August 17, edition of the ABC show.
O’Donnell kicked off a week-long stint filling in for Kimmel, 58, with a joke about what the world was like during her previous stint as a talk show host in the 1990s. (She hosted The Rosie O’Donnell Show from 1996 to 2002.)
“I haven’t sat behind a desk on TV in almost 30 years and a lot has changed since the ‘90s,” she said. “Well, back then, there was a war in the Middle East. Climate change was ravaging our planet, we had a president who was embroiled in scandals. But today, everything is so chill.”
O’Donnell then opened up about her move with her child, Clay, to Ireland in January 2025 on the eve of Trump’s second inauguration.
“I’ve been living in Ireland the last two years because of ‘Mango Mussolini,’” she quipped. “I read that Project 2025 and said, ‘I’ve gotta get myself out of here.’ I decided to go to Ireland, a place where people are driven to drink regardless of who’s running their country. I decided to move and I took my little then-11-year-old kid with me and I just said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t tell anyone. We don’t want a lot of press and a lot of paparazzi. So, please don’t tell anyone.’”
The comedian went on, “They’re a pretty smart kid, they got it. They said, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t,’ and then went to school and proceeded to tell their entire class [they were moving to another country] because ‘the President of the United States hates my mother. But, in all fairness, I believe my mother hates him more.’”
O’Donnell then shared a few charming anecdotes about living in Ireland among “the kindest people I’ve ever met.”
“To the people of Ireland, I send my love. I’ll be home soon,” she vowed.
O’Donnell finished off her debut Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue by hinting that her decision not to mention Trump by name was deliberate.
“Right now, he’s in the White House crying because I haven’t mentioned him,” she teased.
O’Donnell recently returned to the U.S. for an extended stay over the summer for the Off-Broadway run of her one-woman show, Common Knowledge.
In June, Kimmel, 58, took great delight in revealing he’d personally selected O’Donnell to guest host his ABC show during his summer break.
“As a special treat for our commander-in-chief, I asked one of his all-time favorites, Rosie O’Donnell, to be here to keep the hits coming. So, you’re welcome,” he joked. “All I ask in return, Mr. President, is that you don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.”
O’Donnell later debunked reports claiming that she was in the running to potentially replace Kimmel for good, calling those claims “funny — and completely untrue” in July.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs on ABC weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET.
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