Michael Cohen - Rosie O'Donnell and the Death of Citizenship

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

This isn’t about Rosie. It’s a litmus test of how far Trump can push the Constitution—and how many MAGA Americans are dumb enough to let him try.

I’m writing this not just as someone who once stood too close to the sun, but as a man who’s been burned by its fire, singed by its radiation, and still smells of smoke. Because what we’re witnessing right now isn’t just another unhinged social media tantrum by President Trump; it’s a calculated test. A litmus of lunacy. A dry run for dictatorship. This time, the target is Rosie O’Donnell. Next time, it could be you.

Let me be crystal clear: Trump’s threat to revoke the citizenship of Rosie—an American-born citizen, comedian, and longtime thorn in Trump’s side—isn’t just some off-the-cuff late-night post. No. It’s the probing of a system. A poke at the Constitution to see if it flinches. It’s not about Rosie. It never really was. It’s about finding the weak seams in American democracy and prying them open until the entire foundation splits apart.

I spent years by this man’s side. I know how he thinks. This wasn’t said in jest or hyperbole. It was a balloon floated into the ether to see who salutes, who shrugs, and who screams. And the silence, my Substack friends—the fuckin’ silence* from too many so-called patriots—is deafening. Because if Trump can get the courts, or even a whisper of legal standing, to strip Rosie of her citizenship because she “is not in the best interests of our Great Country,” what’s to stop him from doing it to you for tweeting the wrong meme? For disagreeing with a policy. For not liking how you look.

https://www.meidasplus.com/p/rosie-odonnell-and-the-death-of-citizenship

[B.See]

1. This fascist dictator wanna be, and

those like him, have ALWAYS believed they had a say in who belonged and who didn't, citizen or not.

ALWAYS quick to tell someone to 'go back' to where one never WAS.

Too bad it's taken this long for America to finally realize it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. Maddow Blog-Targeting a critic, Trump claims a power he does not have in new authoritarian move

When an American president with an authoritarian-style vision starts claiming abusive powers he does not have, it’s best not to look away.

Targeting a critic, Trump claims a power he does not have in new authoritarian move

flip.it/Q3n3xy

— (@gypsydaveh.bsky.social) 2025-07-14T16:06:28.680Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/rosie-odonnell-trump-threatens-citizenship-power-rcna218623

NBC News reported on Saturday that Donald Trump threatened to take away comedian Rosie O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship — because he doesn’t like her. The message he posted to his social media platform read in part:

Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her.

.....To hear Trump tell it, O’Donnell used speech he found objectionable, which has led him to give “serious consideration” to stripping the comedian of her U.S. citizenship. Implicit in the statement is the president’s apparent belief that he has such power.

He does not. As NBC News’ report noted, Trump cannot legally take away Americans’ citizenship because that presidential authority simply doesn’t exist.

Amanda Frost, an expert on citizenship law at the University of Virginia School of Law, told The New York Times, “In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Afroyim v. Rusk that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment bars the government from stripping citizenship, stating: ‘In our country the people are sovereign and the government cannot sever its relationship to the people by taking away their citizenship.’”

Trump, however, doesn’t appear to understand this — or more to the point, doesn’t seem to care. An American citizen criticized him in ways he did not like, leading him to believe he should consider taking away his critic’s citizenship, as if this were somehow normal in our constitutional system.

It comes against a backdrop of Trump threatening to deny funding to cities that govern in ways he doesn’t like. Which came on the heels of Trump threatening to prosecute a news organization for running reports he didn’t like. Which came on the heels of Trump musing publicly about arresting a Democratic candidate he doesn’t like. Which came on the heels of Trump floating the possibility of deporting American citizens. Which came on the heels of Trump endorsing the arrest of a Democratic governor who has opposed the White House’s agenda. Which came on the heels of Trump ordering a Justice Department investigation into his Democratic predecessor without cause.

And that’s just from the last month or so.

The idea of two prominent public figures engaging in some kind of “feud” is forgettable, but when an American president with an authoritarian-style vision starts claiming abusive powers he does not have, it’s best not to look away.