Somewhere between the Constitution and the combustion engine that powers Trump’s mouth, we lost the plot.
Donald J. Trump, a man more powdered than principled, now suggests that Rosie O’Donnell — a talk show has-been with all the likability of a wet sock — should be stripped of her citizenship for daring to criticize him.
Rosie, the loudmouth liberal who fled America not under duress but out of dramatic flair, is hardly a sympathetic figure. Even her supporters can’t say they “like” her — they just think she’s less awful than the orange autocrat.
But that’s not the point. The point is this: When a sitting president floats the idea of revoking citizenship as a punishment for criticism — even aimed at someone as insufferable as Rosie — he’s not defending the country. He’s attacking the Constitution.
This is not just Trump being “Trump.” This is the fascist fever dream of a man who sees enemies in every mirror and dissent as treason. Nixon had his enemies list. Trump has Truth Social and a bloodthirsty base who would gleefully exile Kelly Ripa if he snapped his fingers.
We’re not talking about a national security threat or a wartime defector. We’re talking about a showbiz feud that’s metastasized into a policy threat. If Rosie O’Donnell can be stripped of her citizenship for being annoying, what happens to journalists? Whistleblowers? You?
This is not about Rosie. This is about the weaponization of patriotism — the slow boil toward tyranny wrapped in the flag, and texted from a gold toilet.
So yeah, Rosie sucks. But democracy suffers when the President plays King and starts banishing court jesters.
God help us when the punchline becomes policy.