Rosie O'Donnell fled America in January 2025 and has spent every day since attacking Trump on TikTok.
Now Jimmy Kimmel is handing her his microphone.
What she said just days before Kimmel made that call is already causing problems for ABC.
Rosie O'Donnell as Jimmy Kimmel Live Guest Host Is Not a Ratings Decision
Kimmel announced he is taking a two-month sabbatical from Jimmy Kimmel Live!
He named O'Donnell as one of his guest hosts – alongside Tiffany Haddish, Colman Domingo, and Jelly Roll.
O’Donnell isn’t on that list to boost ratings.
Her last cultural moment before fleeing the country was a co-host chair on The View – a show built for people who want to watch left-wing women argue about Donald Trump before lunch.
Since moving to Ireland, she has made exactly one kind of content: TikTok videos screaming about Trump.
She accused him of dementia, called ICE his "own personal Gestapo," and claimed he would "arrest every artist that disagrees with him."
That is a grievance channel with a subscriber count, not a comedy career.
Kimmel is putting her in his chair because he thinks it will make Donald Trump angry – and at ABC, that now passes for programming strategy.
Rosie O'Donnell Predicted Trump Would Cancel the Midterm Elections to Stay in Power
Three days before Kimmel's announcement, O'Donnell sat down with Marianne Williamson on YouTube to claim that Trump was going to cancel the Midterm Elections.
"Not only a rigging," O'Donnell told Williamson, "but I think he will have some sort of crisis, whether it's an assassination attempt or a terrorist bombing."
"There will be some catastrophic event and he will say there will be no elections. That is what I think is going to happen."
Those are the words of the woman ABC is about to put on broadcast television.
O'Donnell has been building to this for months – every TikTok rant more detached from reality than the last, confirming that 18 months in Ireland with no broadcast standards, no editor, and no one to pump the brakes has not been good for her.
Trump threatened to revoke her citizenship last year, calling her "a Threat to Humanity" on Truth Social.
She hit back on Instagram, calling him "a criminal con man sexual abusing liar."
O'Donnell has also returned to the United States multiple times since declaring she could not survive Trump's second term – including sneaking back in February to test, as she told Chris Cuomo, "how hard it would be for me to get in and out of the country."
Jay Leno Warned That Late Night TV Was Dying and ABC Just Proved Him Right
Jay Leno spent 22 years hosting The Tonight Show without once telling his audience how to vote – and he got angry letters from both sides, which he considered proof the formula was working.
"I got hate letters saying, 'You and your Republican friends,' and another saying, 'I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy' – over the same joke," Leno said.
"That's how you get a whole audience."
Late-night hosts who choose a side, Leno told the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation last year, guarantee they keep only half their viewers.
"Now you have to be content with half the audience because you have to give your opinion," he said.
ABC is already fighting for its life with the FCC.
The FCC launched an early review of Disney's eight broadcast licenses in April – years ahead of schedule – while separately probing The View over equal time violations.
Disney challenged the order in court, retained a former U.S. Solicitor General, and is now bracing for a First Amendment battle that could run for years.
Kimmel's show was pulled off the air last September after he claimed that Tyler Robinson – the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk – was part of the "MAGA gang."
Robinson's indictment confirmed he held left-wing views.
ABC yanked the show. Kimmel called it voluntary.
Now he is headed out the door for two months – handing the microphone to a woman who just predicted the president will stage a terrorist bombing to cancel democracy, and leaving ABC to manage whatever comes out of her mouth on live broadcast television.
Jay Leno warned this industry was dying years ago and Kimmel just proved him right.
Sources:
- BreAnna Bell, "Jimmy Kimmel taps longtime Trump nemesis Rosie O'Donnell to replace him as he steps back from late-night show," Page Six, June 20, 2026.
- Alana Mastrangelo, "Rosie O'Donnell: Trump Will Use an 'Assassination Attempt or a Terrorist Bombing' to Cancel Midterms," Breitbart, June 20, 2026.
- Zachary Leeman, "Rosie O'Donnell Predicts Trump Will Cancel Midterm Elections," Mediaite, June 18, 2026.
- "Rosie O'Donnell goes off on 'madman' Trump and Colbert's cancelation in scathing TikTok attack," Fox News, July 20, 2025.
- Paul Schrodt, "Jay Leno Criticizes Political Late-Night Hosts," Hollywood Reporter, July 28, 2025.
- "Jay Leno criticizes modern late-night comedy for alienating half the audience with partisan politics," Fox News, July 27, 2025.
- "Jimmy Kimmel nears pre-suspension viewership, sheds 85% of key viewers since hyped comeback show," Fox News, October 7, 2025.
- "FCC to Review Disney ABC Broadcast Licenses After Jimmy Kimmel Joke," Hollywood Reporter, May 1, 2026.
- "FCC launches review of Disney broadcast licenses years ahead of schedule," CNBC, April 28, 2026.