Rosie O'Donnell claims Trump has 'PTSD response' to her as backlash erupts
Rosie O'Donnell has a new take on why she and President Donald Trump have never gotten along.
O'Donnell, who has been back in the U.S. recently after relocating to Ireland after Trump's 2024 presidential win, claimed that their 20-year feud has been going for so long, at least in part, because of their shared roots.
"There have been so many comedians who have said things about him, but I am from the same area that he’s from," she told Variety. She and Trump were both born and raised in New York, and O'Donnell said that people occasionally tell her that they sound alike, "which is probably the worst thing that you can say to me."
She continued, "But I think I’m one of those tough girls from elementary school and junior high that said to him, 'Shut the hell up! You’re not playing with us. Get out of here, you freakin’ idiot!' And he never got past it. I think I trigger him like a PTSD response of all his failures in his life as a kid."
She theorized that she reminds Trump "of the girls who said, 'You're nothing,' and it scares him."
O'Donnell made similar comments this week on Sophia Bush's "Work in Progress" podcast. When Bush said that Trump is "obsessed" with her, she agreed, and said that "he grew up with girls like me – tough, probably gay Irish girls who didn't take s— from no stupid rich boy wannabe."
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
She said, "I would've told him to his face in third, fourth, fifth grade, and I think when I did it to him, quote-unquote, on 'The View,' he couldn't believe that I had the balls to attack him."
Several people weighed in on O'Donnell's latest comments on social media, with one person writing, "Omg so deluded. Trump lives rent free in her head."
"She is obsessed and it is poisoning her soul," another person said.
One X user wrote, "She started all the s— with Trump and acts like shes the victim. Those left wing loony toon are the biggest hypocrites to walk the planet."
"Bless her narcissistic little heart," read another comment. "No honey, he moved on already, you need a new hobby."
Others praised O'Donnell for her comments – one wrote, "I am so grateful for Rosie having such a strong spine and never falling back."
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
"If I was ever gonna pick only one person to be on my team it would be Rosie," another said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
The decades-long feud between O'Donnell and Trump stems back to 2006 after O'Donnell criticized him on "The View" about his decision to be lenient toward a Miss USA winner who had been accused of drug use and other bad behavior.
O'Donnell, who was a co-host on "The View" at the time, said Trump is "not a self-made man" but a "snake-oil salesman on ‘Little House On The Prairie.’"
Trump responded to the criticism by calling O'Donnell a "real loser" and "a woman out of control."
WATCH: ROSIE O'DONNELL SAYS SHE'S ‘HORRIFIED’ BY TRUMP'S WORLD CUP INTERVENTION
The two continued to trade barbs over the years, and in 2025, O'Donnell admitted that she can't resist talking about him.
She told The Washington Post that she'd promised her therapist the Wednesday before Thanksgiving she would refrain from posting about Trump for two days.
It fell apart within hours.
A longtime friend, Jennifer Kopetic, was described as "annoyed" when she told O'Donnell during a visit, "Roseann, you’ve got to detach. You’ve got to disconnect."
She made another vow — three days this time — telling her 1.2 million Instagram followers she was "gonna try again to not give him a minute of me." However, she failed that attempt, too.
Fox News Digital's Christina Dugan Ramirez and Stephanie Giang-Paunon contributed to this report.