Rosie O’Donnell thinks Donald Trump has no intention of letting the midterm elections take place.
The comedian told author Marianne Williamson on Wednesday, June 17, that she believes the president will manufacture a crisis to justify canceling the vote, with both women expressing concern that the midterms will be “rigged.”
Long-running feud
O’Donnell and Trump have been at each other’s throats for two decades now. The pair started feuding in 2006 when O’Donnell grilled Trump on his businesses and bankruptcies during her time as a cohost on The View.
While on The Insider, Trump fired back at O’Donnell, calling her “disgusting, both inside and out.”
“Probably I’ll sue her because it would be fun. I’d like to take some money out of her fat-a** pockets,” he said at the time, though he never followed through on those threats.
The feud eventually played a role in O’Donnell’s decision to leave the United States. She relocated to Ireland in January 2025, citing Trump’s return to the White House as her reason for going.
No election
During the discussion with Williamson, O’Donnell argued that the potential threat is bigger than just rigging an election.
“Not only a rigging, but I think he will have some sort of crisis, whether it’s an assassination attempt or a terrorist bombing,” she said.
“There will be some catastrophic event and he will say there will be no elections. That is what I think is going to happen. Because if you read Project 2025, you would have not believed that they wrote down exactly what they’ve done to our country — and America didn’t notice,” she continued.
‘Hope is the last thing to die’
O’Donnell further warned that Americans should not underestimate what the current administration is capable of.
“If you don’t think that they would take away our right to vote when they’ve already done the Voters Rights Act, when they’ve already set up concentration camps, we are past the precipice, America,” she said. “And everyone needs to believe still, believe — hope is the last thing to die, people.”
Despite her fears, O’Donnell said she remains optimistic about the Democratic Party’s recent momentum.
“We have to believe. I am very thrilled for how the Democrats now seem to be doing — but if I read one more text from a senator saying what he did and not doing anything about it — ‘Well, they can’t, Rosie, because they’re the minority.’ You know what? There were many minority groups that stood their ground and saved our nation before,” she continued.
Move to Ireland
O’Donnell also opened up about why she made the move to Ireland, saying it came down to protecting her “sanity.”
“That was my choice in order to keep my family and my sanity safe, in order to not have the constant abuse from him infiltrate my day with my children out at CVS,” she said. “I don’t want to have the stress and anxiety associated with the constant barrage of him. It sounds like a PTSD response from me, to tell you the God’s honest truth. It’s 20 years!”
Trump took another jab at O’Donnell after her move. During a meeting with Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin, a reporter asked whether O’Donnell might lower Ireland’s “happiness level.”
“I like that question,” Trump said before asking Martin if he knew O’Donnell.
“You’re better off not knowing,” the president then quipped.
