Trump Just Echoed a Chilling Hitler-Era Threat

Jul 12, 2025

If you think the threats from Donald Trump couldn’t get more authoritarian, think again. In a recent post on Truth Social, the former president declared that he is "giving serious consideration to taking away [Rosie O’Donnell’s] Citizenship," branding her a “Threat to Humanity” and suggesting she should be deported to Ireland, “if they want her.”

Let’s be very clear: This is not just a petty insult from a celebrity-turned-politician. This is a chilling echo of tactics used by some of the darkest regimes in modern history, including Nazi Germany. And if you think that comparison sounds extreme, you haven’t been paying attention.

The Legal Reality: Trump Can’t Do This. Period.

First, the basics. Rosie O’Donnell is an American citizen. She was born in Commack, Long Island, New York. She has no known dual citizenship with Ireland. That means she is a natural-born American.

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Under U.S. law, a natural-born citizen cannot have their citizenship revoked by presidential decree. The U.S. Supreme Court made this clear in Afroyim v. Rusk (1967), ruling that the government cannot revoke the citizenship of a U.S.-born citizen without their consent. Even those who naturalize must go through due process in a denaturalization proceeding, and only under extreme and specific legal conditions (such as fraud during the naturalization process).

So unless Rosie O’Donnell suddenly volunteers to renounce her citizenship—and spoiler: she won’t—Trump is once again promising to do something that is not only illegal but fundamentally unconstitutional. And he’s doing it simply because he doesn’t like what she says.

From Insult to Authoritarianism

Yes, Trump has a long and very public feud with Rosie O’Donnell, dating back to her criticisms of him in 2006. But this latest post doesn’t read like celebrity beef—it reads like state-sanctioned retribution. He is effectively saying: Criticize me, and I will exile you.

That’s not democracy. That’s dictatorship.

Let’s take a hard look at history. In Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, political dissidents, Jews, and other “undesirables” were stripped of their German citizenship through the Reich Citizenship Law of 1935, part of the infamous Nuremberg Laws. Once stateless, these people had no rights, no protections—and ultimately, no safety.

In Fascist Italy, Mussolini similarly revoked the citizenship of anti-fascist Italians living abroad. And Stalin's Soviet regime would routinely brand dissenters as "enemies of the state" and exile them to remote regions or strip them of citizenship entirely.

This isn’t a slippery slope argument. This is a mirror. When a political leader publicly fantasizes about exiling critics, he is wielding the tools of fascism—whether he understands the legal limitations or not.

Why This Should Alarm Every American

Today it’s Rosie O’Donnell. Tomorrow it could be you.

The moment a president—former or future—decides he has the power to strip away citizenship based on political disagreement is the moment democracy begins to collapse from within. This is not about Rosie. It’s about every American’s freedom of speech, freedom of dissent, and fundamental right to belong to their country.

If Donald Trump gets another term and feels emboldened to carry out these threats, will the courts still be strong enough to stop him? Will Congress have the courage to step in?

The fact that we even have to ask these questions should terrify us all.

Final Thoughts

Trump’s post is not just offensive. It’s dangerous. It’s authoritarian. And it’s a test balloon—one floated to see how far he can push the envelope without consequence.

It’s up to us to push back. Because when leaders start deciding who is and isn’t a “real” citizen, history has shown us how that story ends—and it never ends well.

GOD BLESS AMERICA—and may it remain a country where no president can exile someone simply because he doesn't like what they say.