No, the President Cannot Strip Rosie O’Donnell of Her Citizenship

This week, the President stated on Truth Social that “As previously mentioned, we are giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship. She is not a Great American and is, in my opinion, incapable of being so!”

Advertisement

When I previously objected that such a move would be grossly unconstitutioal, supporters insisted that Trump was simply trolling opponents. However, the threat of an unconstitutional act only reinforces the narratives of O’Donnell, who has engaged in false claims and conspiracy theories on social media.

O’Donnell has trolled Trump after fleeing the country in protest to live in Ireland. Most recently, she was widely criticized for claiming that the shooter at the Minnesota Catholic church was “a white guy, Republican, MAGA person. White supremacist.” She later apologized, but added, “I assumed, like most shooters, they followed a standard MO and had standard, you know, feelings of… you know, NRA-loving kind of gun people.”

Spreading disinformation is not grounds for losing your citizenship and would create a dangerous precedent. Indeed, President Trump rightfully objected to Democrats trying to strip him from ballots in the last election. To now claim the right to strip political opponents of their actual citizenship only surrenders the high ground to his critics.

Ed Morrissey

Turley's right, of course. In normal circumstances, I'd criticize Trump for "punching down" too, except that he's not doing that nearly as much as he did in his first term, and also because he and Rosie O'Donnell have been doing this for a very long time, for some reason. Threats like this, even made unseriously, give the media more meat to advance their "Trump is an authoritarian" narrative. Is trolling O'Donnell worth it?

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement