Rosie O’Donnell challenges Donald Trump: “go ahead and try, king joffrey with a tangerine spray tan”

For anyone who endured all eight seasons of Game of Thrones – book readers included, with whatever tyrant their imaginations summoned from the printed page – the idea of being compared to King Joffrey is no compliment. Yet that’s exactly the comparison Rosie O’Donnell has drawn between Donald Trump and Westeros’ infamous boy king.

O’Donnell vs Trump

Why would the comedian and actor go there? The answer lies in a long-standing public feud, recently reignited after Trump suggested that O’Donnell should be stripped of her U.S. citizenship and exiled – specifically to Ireland, where she has heritage.

In a typically erratic post on Truth Social, Trump wrote:

“Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her.”

It’s almost like he’s desperately trying to get the news cycle to switch away from his Epstein links.

This difficult-to-enforce threat was posted just hours before O’Donnell issued her response on Instagram. Although she’d told Irish media she “didn’t take it personally,” her online reply was notably sharper:

“You are everything that is wrong with america. You want to revoke my citizenship? go ahead and try, king joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. i’m not yours to silence. i never was.”

Her dig wasn’t just about personality – it invoked a broader political metaphor.

Why the Joffrey-Trump comparison matters

Joffrey Baratheon, for the uninitiated, was a capricious, cruel monarch whose obsession with dominance and disregard for justice ultimately led to his downfall. See below for examples. The comparison is potent not just for its insult, but for what it suggests about creeping authoritarianism.

Remember the “No Kings” protests that swept across parts of the U.S. recently? They weren’t just symbolic – they were reminders of a core American principle: the rejection of monarchy, and the embrace of checks, balances, and democratic restraint. That symbolism now seems more relevant than ever, as Trump’s public behavior increasingly mirrors the whims of a ruler who desires power without responsibility.

Even some of Trump’s most devoted followers (the words Great and Again both difficult to collectively tie down) are beginning to question whether blind loyalty to one man – rather than to principle or country – is a tenable position. In that sense, O’Donnell’s allusion to King Joffrey lands not just as a personal insult, but as a cultural critique.

The irony of it all

Strangely enough, Trump might not be as offended by the comparison as the rest of us would assume. Joffrey, after all, was a king. He wielded total power, crushed dissent, and demanded obedience – qualities Trump seems to admire, if not outright emulate.

So while most of us recoil at the idea of being likened to Westeros’s most reviled monarch, Trump may see it differently. Whether the title “leader of the free world” continues to apply to someone who flirts with autocracy is, increasingly, an open question.

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