Rosie O’Donnell, longtime foe of Donald Trump – a Hollywood personality who’s engaged in numerous public spats with the White House chief way before he even took his White House job – is stepping out of her self-imposed solitude of recent times to lead up protests against the new president, in the hours before his first address to a joint session of Congress.
The rally, dugged “A Resistane Address: Defending American Values in a Time of Moral Crisis,” is set to kick off Tuesday at 6 p.m., right outside the White House.
“Following the first disastrous month of his administration,” the group Advocates Resisting Trump Agenda said in a statement, “Trump is expected to articulate a discriminatory agenda that continues to put people in harm’s way, undermines equality and our shared values and damages our environment.”
Several organizations are participating in the rally, including the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn.org and the Daily Kos. But it’s O’Donnell who’s the featured guest and leader.
Her fued with Trump stretches back a decade or more.
Most recently, O’Donnell was forced to apologize publicly to Melania Trump for attacking her son, 10, and mocking him as autistic.
And on January 1, she tweeted this: “Donald Trump is mentally unstable. Less than 3 weeks to stop him America,” an apparent call for Democrats to find a way to keep the newly elected president from actually taking his oath of office.
But it was years ago when O’Donnell took the first swing, as chronicled by Fox News.
In 2006, O’Donnell slammed Trump, then-co-owner of the Miss Universe pageants, for his bankruptcies and inability to lead. Trump responded by calling O’Donnell out as a “real loser” and a “woman out of control.”
Months later, Trump actually defended O’Donnell’s views on the Iraq war, but then sideswiped her during an interview with Extra.
His words: “On this one [Iraq], I think Rosie should win, but Rosie is not much herself.”
In 2011, Trump ratcheted tensions by tweeting: “I feel sorry for Rosie’s new partner in love whose parents are devastated at the thought of their daughter being with @Rosie, a true loser.”
Shortly after, Trump dissed both O’Donnell and Cher on Twitter, calling Cher “an average talent who is out of touch with reality” and saying she was “like @Rosie O’Donnell, a total loser.” The context of the tweets? Cher’s attack on then-GOP presidential pick, Mitt Romney.
In 2012, after O’Donnell had a heart attack, the two actually seemed to share a moment of peace.
Trump tweeted, “Rosie get better fast. I’m starting to miss you!”
And O’Donnell replied, also on Twitter: “Well thank u donald … i must admit ur post was a bit of a shock … r u trying to kill me?”
In 2014, when O’Donnell returned as co-host of The View, Trump tweeted: “Rosie is back on the View which tells you how desperate they must be. It is the standard short term fix and long term disaster.”
Just a few hours later, Trump then tweeted: “Rosie is rude, crude, obnoxious and dumb. Other than that I like her very much!”
Later in 2014, O’Donnell complained about Trump bullying her on Twitter.
She said: “Probably the Trump stuff was the most bullying I ever experienced in my life, including as a child. It was national and it was sanctioned societally. Whether I deserved it is up to your own interpretation.”
In February 2015, when O’Donnell left the View, Trump said: “Well, it’s very said what’s happened to ‘The View’ and I predicted that with Rosie O’Donnell, it would fail. I guess the prediction is correct but, I mean, she’s a total trainwreck, so let’s see what happens and I hope it works out well. … I like the show a lot, but let’s face it, Rosie is a loser.”
And of course, during 2016 campaign season, the two engaged in some very nasty back-and-forths, all of which were widely reported.
For instance, when Trump was asked to clarify his past slinging of negative labels at women, from “fat pigs” to “dogs” to “slobs,” he responded by saying he meant “only Rosie O’Donnell.”
O’Donnell then tweeted in response: “Try explaining that 2 ur kids.”
