The White House has branded comedian Rosie O’Donnell a “total slob” after she joked on late night television that Natalie Harp, Donald Trump’s devoted executive assistant, tucks the president into bed at night.
O’Donnell’s quip, made Wednesday night during her stint as a guest host on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, comes as Trump’s 35-year-old aide has been at the center of intense media and public scrutiny over her unusually close relationship with and proximity to the president. The comedian opened the episode wishing viewers “a special hello to those of you watching from home and from the White House.”
“But I do have some bad news for President Petty Roosevelt,” she continued. “That’s all I’m going to say about you tonight, sweetheart. You got to realize it’s time to hang up your wig and let Natalie tuck you in,” O’Donnell said, drawing audible gasps from the audience.
In response, the White House unleashed an insult-laden statement on O’Donnell, who has been feuding with Trump for 20 years.
“Rosie O’Donnell is a nasty woman and a total slob whose brain has been completely destroyed by Trump Derangement Syndrome,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told PEOPLE.
O’Donnell has been trolling the president all week during her stint on Kimmel’s show. She opened Monday night’s show by referring to Trump as “Mango Mussolini.”
“You know, I’ve been living in Ireland for the past two years because of Mango Mussolini,” she joked. “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.”
“If you thought the president hated Jimmy Kimmel Live! when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, buckle up, people. Buckle up!” she also quipped.
Signing off in what was her final night guest hosting Thursday evening, O’Donnell thanked “everyone who’s been watching this week, especially the hungry, hungry hypocrite in the White House.”
She also performed a rendition of the Irish ballad Danny Boy, dedicated to the president. “Poor Donny boy your polls, your polls are falling. Your reflecting pool is green as Mountain Dew,” she sang to the tune of the original song. “Your wig’s a mess, your ballroom is appalling, and with Iran you’ve bit off more than you can chew.”
Trump has not responded to the comedian’s latest jabs on Truth Social.
He posted an AI-generated meme of O’Donnell in June where he said she was “obsessed” with him, and another where an AI-generated Trump diagnosed her with “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Trump ally and Fox News personality Jesse Watters said that he thought the show only booked O’Donnell to provoke the president.
“I think they just book her to tweak Trump and they’re waiting for Trump to tweet about it and you know what, he hasn’t,” Watters said on The Five. “And it’s driving them nuts, because they want a feud.”
O’Donnell’s hosting stint comes amid Trump’s repeated calls for networks to take action against late night hosts who criticize him. The 64-year-old’s guest slot on Kimmel’s show has proved a hit with late-night viewers, with her first night as guest host drawing an audience of 1.87 million.
Her bitter feud with Trump stretches to 2006, when she was a host on The View. It reached new heights during Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign, when moderator Megyn Kelly challenged him during a Republican debate about derogatory comments he had made about women. Trump famously replied: “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”
In announcing his list of guest hosts before taking time away, Kimmel told his audience in June: “And as a special treat for our commander in chief, I asked one of his all-time favorites, Rosie O’Donnell, to be here to keep the hits coming.”