Rosie O’Donnell ‘horrified’ by Trump’s World Cup intervention: ‘You’re not the freakin’ ref!’

'This is a man who has been a failure at everything he’s ever tried'

Published Jul 10, 2026  •  Last updated 24 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

Rosie O'Donnell poses during the 2025 AFLW Pride Round Media Opportunity at Ikon Park on Oct. 13, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Getty Images /AFL Photos via Getty Images

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Rosie O’Donnell is ready to reignite her yearsl-long war of words with Donald Trump after the president intervened on behalf of U.S. men’s national team member Folarin Balogun in the World Cup.

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“The fact that he called up FIFA and had the penalty revoked for the American team and America was like, ‘Yeah, that’s good! I didn’t think it was a red card anyway!’ Well, you’re not the freakin’ ref! You don’t get to decide!” O’Donnell told Variety in a new interview.

“Since when does he get to make and change the rules, the goalposts, whatever metaphor you want to use, and everyone just sits by and shrugs their shoulders? There’s so much (corruption) that we don’t even notice it.”

What did Trump do with FIFA?

Ahead of America’s knockout match against Belgium earlier this week, Trump lobbied FIFA President Gianni Infantino to rescind a red card that would have prevented Balogun from playing in the game.

Balogun had been scratched from Monday’s game for stepping on the foot of defender Bosnia-Herzegovina Tarik Muharemovic in a round-of-32 matchup earlier in the tournament.

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Trump’s interference resulted in the first time a red card ruling had been reversed since 1962.

“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Despite Balogun’s clearance to play, the U.S. team suffered an “embarrassing” loss to Belgium in the Round of 16 on Monday night.

But O’Donnell says she was “horrified” that the men’s team didn’t object to Trump’s intervention in the first place.

“The fact that (Balogun) did not say, ‘I will not play this game,’ and the fact that the coach of the American team did not say, ‘This is not how we win,’ and that everyone was just like, ‘Well, whatever!’ I was horrified. I’m horrified that he is able to get away with pretty much everything, and it’s sickening,” she said.

O’Donnell was one of several Hollywood figures who Trump claimed to have treated for suffering from ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ in an AI-generated social media post last week.

Donald Trump took aim at his most vocal celebrity critics in a new AI-generated video. Photo by Donald Trump /Truth Social

The former View co-host went on to call Trump “the worst thing that ever happened to our country.”

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“He was allowed to go on (The Apprentice) … and it was sold as fact when it was in fact fiction, because he was broke – one of the many times that he was broke – and this is a man who has been a failure at everything he’s ever tried, and he is mediocre beyond mediocre, and the fact that he is running our nation is an abomination,” O’Donnell said.

A 2020 New York Times report found that Trump reported $89.9 million in net losses the year before The Apprentice debuted in 2004 and helped catapult him to worldwide fame.

O’Donnell and Trump dispute goes back 20 years

The clash between O’Donnell and Trump started in 2006 when she referred to the billionaire businessman as a “snake-oil salesman” on The View after he held a press conference to announce that he would not be stripping Tara Conner of her Miss USA title following an underage scandal involving booze and drugs.

“He’s the moral authority? Left the first wife, had an affair, left the second wife, had an affair, had kids both times, but he’s the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America. Donald, sit and spin, my friend!” she railed. “I don’t enjoy him.”

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Rosie O’Donnell and President Donald Trump’s feud began when she criticized him on “The View” for his decision to be lenient toward Miss USA winner, Tara Conner, who had been accused of drug use back in 2006. Photo by Brad Barket /Getty Images

O’Donnell also lashed out at Trump’s claims he was a “self-made man.”

“He’s been bankrupt so many times!” she cried. “The people that he owed money to got shorted out, but he got to try again and again.”

Trump responded to her criticisms by calling O’Donnell “a real loser” and “a woman out of control.”

As the two exchanged barbs in the ensuing years, O’Donnell claimed their feud led to “the most bullying I ever experienced in my life.”

After his second re-election, Trump mocked O’Donnell for moving to Ireland.

“Do you know you have Rosie O’Donnell? Do you know who she is?” he asked Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin. “You’re better off not knowing.”

Trump also threatened to revoke O’Donnell’s American citizenship.

“She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” he wrote last year on Truth Social.

On Instagram, O’Donnell shared a screenshot of Trump’s post, writing, “The president of the USA has always hated the fact that I see him for who he is — a criminal con man, sexual-abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself.”

She said that is why she moved to Ireland. “He is a dangerous old soulless man with dementia who lacks empathy compassion and basic humanity … (you’re) a bad joke who can’t form a coherent sentence #nevertrump,” O’Donnell concluded.

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