Donald Trump has threatened to strip Rosie O’Donnell, the actress and comedian, of her American citizenship, labelling her a “threat to humanity”.
Mr Trump said the 63-year-old entertainer, a long-time critic of his, was “not in the best interests of our country” and called for her to remain “in the wonderful country of Ireland”, where she moved following his election win last year.
But a little thought.
If you voluntarily give up your US citizenship that’s a tax event. You pay all CGT up to that point and even, I think, the income tax you would have paid for some years forward.
So, would that apply if you had the citizenship taken away? There are people wh do lose citizenship after all. So, what does the IRS do to them?
I have a feeling the IRS wouldn’t discriminate.
Is Rosie the only person to follow through with the threat to leave?
Anyway, this amused:
At a Republican primary debate in 2015, when Mr Trump was questioned by a moderator about labelling women “fat pigs” and “slobs”, he responded: “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”
And that was before he was elected so this rings hollow:
Appearing on the Chris Cuomo Project podcast last month, she claimed Mr Trump’s election win caused her to overeat.
“I was very, very depressed. I was overeating. I was over-drinking,” she said.
I read that as “caused her to overact”.
Allow me to express my views on this:
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Dammit, Trump, stop making me love you.
I wonder if in fact he does have that power.
Certainly laws have been passed in the US detailing the circumstances under which a person can lose their American citizenship. The executive is supposed to execute those laws.
Could the President could use an executive order to do the same thing? Among other reasons he could state that she is such a threat to the US that he cannot wait for a law to be passed under which her citizenship would be removed.
Admittedly like with other executive orders this could at least be undone by a future President, and there would likely be some sort of court case (civil or criminal?), but is this beyond the powers of the office? How?
I’m not a lawyer or an American so don’t treat this as advice.
Further to the above (it would be nice to have some sort of edit function…) it might depend on what O’Donnell’s intentions are. If she has no intention of going back to the US, it would I think strengthen the case.
Btw – Rosie O’Donnell, the actress and comedian
If she’s a comedian, why isn’t she funny? Why is she getting clowned on by a 79 year old politician who’s never done standup in his puff?
Like, if the President of the United States had a feud with Jimmy Carr, I’m pretty sure Jimmy Carr would tell some good jokes about the situation and turn the free publicity to his advantage. Not cry and eat.
“threat to humanity”.
She would be if she fell on you.
Oh, the huge manatee?
Does she do matinées?
Dammit, Tim. Did you have to say, “strip Rosie O’Donnell?”
I can’t unsee it.
M said:
“I wonder if in fact he does have that power. … is this beyond the powers of the office? How?”
My understanding is that executive orders are just instructions to government employees, so they can’t take away rights of other US citizens.
So Trump couldn’t issue an executive order stripping someone of citizenship (well, he could, but it wouldn’t be valid).
However he could issue one telling twenty people in the immigration and legal departments to hunt through all the Acts of Congress and constitutional precedents to find something that allows her to be stripped of citizenship, and once found to apply it.
And Congress has been so lazy about passing vague laws giving power to the Executive that I suspect there probably is something they could find and use.
RichardT, speculation can be fun.
Gamecock is a US citizen. It’s not tangible. I can produce a certified birth certificate that says I was born in Berea, KY. That makes me a US citizen, but it’s a birth certificate, not a certificate of citizenship.
Speculation: should Rosie publicly renounce her US citizenship, I should think there would be a law that allows a government official to declare she is no longer a US citizen. On the other hand, I can see some fun in her declaring she is no longer a citizen, and a government official (Trump!) announces, “Oh, YES YOU ARE!”
I have a US Passport (exp.) that lists “nationality” as “United States of America.” I guess that’s the same as “citizenship,” but maybe not.
He should leave her alone. She’s a long way away and doesn’t seem to be much of a threat to anyone. And surely the centre has better things to do with its time! And it would be petty and bullying. He should be the bigger man and walk on by.
I wonder what he’ll do.
@steve
“Dammit, Trump, stop making me love you.” – oh Steve, you win the internet again.