Rosie O'Donnell couldn't stand to be in US during Trump presidency, but happy to come back to bash him during late night show hosting gig

Rosie O'Donnell is back in the US for her four-night 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' guest-hosting gig after relocating to Ireland last year to escape President Trump’s second administration.

O'Donnell, 64, kicked off her first day by repeatedly professing her hatred for Trump.

She framed the spot as her settling 'one last score.'

'It all started like a heist movie. I was out of this talk show game. Living abroad,' she recalled, using her best gangster impersonation.

'Then I got a secret message from Jimmy asking if I was interested... So I dusted off my Koosh balls and here I am.'

She then spent several minutes of her Monday monologue detailing her decision to leave the US.

'I took my little then-11-year-old kid with me, and I just said, "Whatever you do, don’t tell anyone, because we don’t want a lot of press and a lot of paparazzi. So, please don’t tell anyone."'

'You know, they got it. They said, "Don’t worry, I won’t,"' O'Donnell said of her nonbinary child, Clay.

'And then went to school and proceeded to tell their entire class, "I’m very sorry I won’t be able to graduate sixth grade with you. I’m being forced to move to another country because the President of the United States hates my mother."'

The former View host returned to the US earlier this summer to promote her Off Broadway solo show, Common Knowledge. It wrapped on August 8.

Trump and O'Donnell's hatred for each other goes back not only years but decades, after the comic mocked his bankruptcies and ethics on a 2006 episode of The View.

'Hi! I know you’re watching!' O'Donnell told Trump at a point during Monday's broadcast, turning to the camera and physically waving. 

'You know, I've been living in Ireland for the past two years because of Mango Mussolini. I read that Project 2025 and said, got to get myself out of here, you know? 

'And I decided to go to Ireland, a place where people are driven to drink regardless of who's running their country.'

Kimmel, another Trump adversary, eagerly touted O'Donnell as part of his gang of rotating guest-hosts on June 18.  

'Tiffany Haddish, Colman Domingo, Ike Barinholtz, Anthony Anderson, Jelly Roll,' he listed.

'And... I asked one of [Donald Trump's] all-time favorites - Rosie O’Donnell - to be here to keep the hits coming.'

The announcement drew uproarious applause.

'You're welcome,' Kimmel told the LA crowd, calling it a 'special treat for our commander-in-chief.'

Kimmel and Trump have been wrapped in a feud since the latter called for the late night host's show to be canceled last year after Kimmel made disparaging remarks about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. 

O'Donnell, in June, told Andy Cohen she would be open to guest-hosting the even more left-leaning View as well. The comedienne was long a panelist on the program, with her back-and-forths with Trump beginning there.

'Left the first wife, had an affair, left the second wife, had an affair. Had kids both times,' O’Donnell said in 2006.

Asked about his tendency to use derogatory terms to describe women, Trump quipped in 2015: 'Only Rosie O'Donnell.' 

She said on Monday: 'Right now, he’s in the White House crying because I haven’t mentioned him,' after going out of her way not to mention the President by name. 

When asked about O'Donnell's barbs on Tuesday, a White House spokesperson instead singled out Kimmel.

'Jimmy Kimmel is a no-talent loser who has beclowned himself with tanking ratings and by spewing disgusting lies to his dwindling audience. 

'He is so devoid of actual talent that nobody with any commonsense would ever watch him unless it was to laugh at his miserable failure.' 

O’Donnell, meanwhile, moved to Ireland in early 2025.

She said the move was meant to protect the safety and sanity of her child, at the time.