Rosie O’Donnell used her return to American late-night television to thank “President Oompa J. Loompa” for an unlikely career boost.
The former “The View” co-host stepped behind the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” desk Tuesday in Los Angeles and joked that President Donald Trump had put her name back in circulation by keeping their decades-old fight alive.
“I’m back in the spotlight all thanks to President Oompa J. Loompa, who is watching us this evening from inside a catering cart,” O’Donnell said in her opening monologue.
The line referred to reports that Trump used an airport catering truck and Air Force One as a decoy before transferring to another military aircraft while leaving a NATO summit in Turkey because of a credible Iranian threat.
O’Donnell turned the reported security move into a personal thank-you.
“You know, I couldn’t have done it without you, sweetie,” she said. “You brought me back just like you did with fascism and the measles.”
The joke matched the “re-famous” line O’Donnell had recently used on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast, where she told her children that Trump’s attention had created a new round of visibility for her.
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“I feel like recently, I’m re-famous. That’s what I feel. I told my kids, ‘Well, kids, hold on, ’cause mommy’s re-famous,’” O’Donnell said.
The Kimmel gig put O’Donnell back in front of a U.S. network audience after she left the United States with her youngest child in January 2025, five days before Trump’s second inauguration.
She later applied for Irish citizenship while maintaining her U.S. citizenship, then returned to the United States for a family visit in early 2026.
Trump threatened that July to strip O’Donnell of her U.S. citizenship and suggested Ireland could keep her.
“She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her,” Trump said.
O’Donnell’s fight with Trump began in 2006, after she criticized his handling of a Miss USA dispute while she was co-hosting “The View.”
Nearly 10 years later, a 2015 Republican presidential debate moderator asked Trump about insulting language he had used for women.
His answer came down to two words, “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”
Kimmel, who is on a two-month vacation, had framed O’Donnell’s arrival as a “special treat” for Trump before handing the ABC show over to her for the week.
O’Donnell did not hide what viewers were getting.
“The President hated ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Buckle up, people,” O’Donnell said during her Monday guest-hosting debut.
The booking was not built on a close friendship.
O’Donnell told Variety that she and Kimmel had “never spoken on the phone” and had “kind of an adversarial relationship,” even before she agreed to fill in for him.
Howard Stern had tried to ease the tension, she said, and she had been at the same parties as Kimmel a few times. When that happened, O’Donnell said she usually spoke with Kimmel’s wife, Molly McNearney.
“But Jimmy was never a fan of mine,” O’Donnell told Variety.
The invitation surprised her because she had never been a guest on the show.
“When my publicist called and said, ‘Do you want to guest host Kimmel for a week?’ I said, ‘I haven’t ever even been a guest!’” O’Donnell told Variety.
She accepted after her team confirmed Kimmel wanted her to do it.
O’Donnell also told Variety that the chance to support Kimmel mattered after ABC sidelined his late-night show for six days in September 2025 amid criticism and FCC pressure over his monologue about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
She said Kimmel was defending “the First Amendment” and the right of entertainers and citizens to speak against the government.
Stephen Colbert, O’Donnell added, deserved similar support after his 11-year run on “The Late Show” ended in May.
“And I wish that Stephen Colbert had the same kind of support when it happened to him, because he shouldn’t be gone either,” O’Donnell said.
Many viewed Colbert’s exit as a CBS decision meant to mollify Trump.
O’Donnell also used the Variety interview to criticize Paramount CEO David Ellison’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal involving CBS and CNN.
“It would be like Fox taking over all news channels,” O’Donnell told Variety. “Imagine if Fox was not one outlier and Fox was the mainstay? That’s what’s happening with Hollywood now and the Ellisons, and it’s tragic.”
She also criticized CBS News, “60 Minutes” and Bari Weiss, the incoming editor-in-chief of CBS News, ahead of the proposed $111 billion merger.
“Look at what’s happened to CBS News and 60 Minutes, which was the gold star of their entire network, and they blew it up,” O’Donnell said.
“This Bari Weiss person, I don’t know how she can live with herself,” she added.
“There are people who are sidling up to him and history will record all of their names, what they did, and who they stood next to.”
O’Donnell’s late-night comeback, however, stayed tied to the president who has mocked her for years, threatened her citizenship and helped make her “mommy’s re-famous.”
“You know, I couldn’t have done it without you, sweetie,” she said.