Rosie O’Donnell wasted little time turning Jimmy Kimmel Live! into another platform for her decades-long feud with President Donald Trump.
O’Donnell began a weeklong stint filling in for Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night and almost immediately made the president a target of her opening monologue, even warning viewers that the political rhetoric on the ABC late-night program might be about to escalate.
“They said you can’t come home again, but here I am,” O’Donnell told the audience before adding, “If you thought the president hated Jimmy Kimmel Live! when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, buckle up, people.”
It was hardly an unexpected direction for the program.
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When Kimmel announced O’Donnell as one of his summer guest hosts in June, he explicitly connected the decision to Trump, sarcastically describing O’Donnell’s appearance as a “special treat” for the president. O’Donnell and Trump have publicly feuded for roughly two decades.
On Monday night, O’Donnell made good on Kimmel’s tease.
O’Donnell Brings Her Trump Feud to ABC
O’Donnell discussed her decision to move to Ireland following Trump’s 2024 election victory, once again using the nickname “Mango Mussolini” for the president.
She said she had read Project 2025 and concluded she needed to leave the United States, eventually relocating to Ireland with her youngest child in January 2025.
O’Donnell then recounted how her child (who she described with they/them pronouns) explained the move to classmates.
Rosie O’Donnell uses her opening monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live to take shots repeatedly at President Trump.
“If you thought the president hated Jimmy Kimmel Live when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, buckle up people.”
“A lot has changed since the 90s. Back then we had a… pic.twitter.com/txIQnpDmsx
— Reggie B. (@reggiebblue) August 18, 2026
According to O’Donnell, the explanation was that “the president of the United States hates my mother,” before joking that O’Donnell probably hated Trump even more.
O’Donnell then stopped and looked directly into the camera.
“Hi, I know you’re watching!” she said while waving.
Later in the monologue, O’Donnell again referenced Trump, joking that he might be upset that she had not spent enough time talking about him. She also promised that viewers could expect more during the remainder of her guest-hosting stint. O’Donnell is scheduled to remain behind Kimmel’s desk through Thursday, August 20.
The White House responded to O’Donnell’s remarks by pointing reporters toward an earlier Trump social media post criticizing the comedian and describing O’Donnell as “obsessed” with him.
Kimmel Appears to Have Known Exactly What He Was Doing
The political component of O’Donnell’s booking is particularly difficult to dismiss as simply a guest host deciding independently to talk politics.
Kimmel himself introduced the idea months ago specifically in the context of Trump’s dislike for O’Donnell.
“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,” Kimmel said when announcing his summer replacements.
Monday’s show demonstrated exactly what that meant.
Jimmy Kimmel Crying – YouTube, Jimmy Kimmel Live!
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O’Donnell did not spend her entire monologue discussing Trump. Much of it dealt with Ireland, her former daytime program, and her return to television. But Trump was nevertheless deliberately woven throughout her first night, beginning with her opening warning and continuing through her direct message to the president.
In other words, this was not merely O’Donnell temporarily occupying Kimmel’s chair. Kimmel effectively handed his program to one of Trump’s longest-running celebrity adversaries, openly joked about doing so because of that rivalry, and O’Donnell immediately continued the show’s anti-Trump political comedy.
A Feud Going Back Two Decades
The animosity between Trump and O’Donnell predates Trump’s political career.
Their public feud exploded in 2006 after O’Donnell criticized Trump on The View over his handling of Miss USA winner Tara Conner. Trump responded publicly, and the two have traded insults and criticism through television appearances, interviews, and social media ever since.
The feud became political after Trump’s 2016 election and intensified again following his return to the White House.
President Trump before the 2026 World Cup final – Fox Sports, YouTube
O’Donnell moved to Ireland shortly before Trump’s second inauguration and has repeatedly cited his return to power as a major reason for leaving the country. Trump, meanwhile, has continued publicly criticizing O’Donnell. In 2025, he even floated stripping O’Donnell of U.S. citizenship, something constitutional scholars said a president does not have the power to do to a native-born American citizen simply by executive action.
That history makes O’Donnell’s selection as Kimmel’s replacement much more provocative than an ordinary summer guest-hosting assignment.
The Timing Could Hardly Be More Remarkable for Disney
O’Donnell’s debut also arrives at an extraordinary moment for ABC and parent company The Walt Disney Company.
On Tuesday, just hours after O’Donnell’s first episode aired, Disney and ABC filed a federal lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission challenging the agency’s decision to accelerate its review of eight ABC-owned television station licenses.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr testifies before House subcommittee – CBS News, YouTube
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Disney argues that the FCC’s actions violate the First Amendment and amount to retaliation over ABC programming critical of the Trump administration, including material aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Reuters reported that the FCC reviews were ordered after Trump called on ABC to fire Kimmel.
That does not mean O’Donnell’s monologue has any direct bearing on Disney’s legal case. But the optics are impossible to ignore.
Disney and ABC are arguing that the federal government can’t retaliate against a broadcaster because politicians dislike its editorial or entertainment content.
Rosie O’Donnell hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! – ABC
At virtually the same moment, ABC is airing a week of Jimmy Kimmel Live! hosted by a celebrity whose bitter personal feud with the sitting president is so famous that Kimmel openly advertised the booking as a joke directed at Trump.
That is certainly ABC’s right to do.
It also removes any pretense that O’Donnell’s appearance was intended to take Jimmy Kimmel Live! away from its increasingly political identity while its regular host was on vacation.
If Kimmel’s goal was to make certain the Trump jokes continued while he was away, Rosie O’Donnell’s first night made one thing abundantly clear: he picked the right guest host.
How do you feel about Rosie O’Donnell guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live? Sound off and let us know!
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