Rosie O'Donnell has reignited her long-running feud with President Donald Trump after he intervened with FIFA to overturn a red card for U.S. men's national team player Folarin Balogun during the World Cup. In an interview with Variety, O'Donnell expressed horror at the intervention and the team's acceptance of it.
Trump's FIFA Intervention
Before America's knockout match against Belgium, Trump lobbied FIFA President Gianni Infantino to rescind a red card that would have sidelined Balogun. The player had been penalized for stepping on the foot of Bosnia-Herzegovina's Tarik Muharemovic in a round-of-32 match. Trump's interference led to the first reversal of a red card ruling since 1962.
"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. "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."
Trump celebrated the reversal on Truth Social, writing, "Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!" Despite Balogun's clearance, the U.S. team lost to Belgium in the Round of 16.
O'Donnell's Critique of Team and Trump
O'Donnell criticized the U.S. men's team for not objecting to Trump's intervention. "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.
She called Trump "the worst thing that ever happened to our country" and labeled him a failure. "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 added. A 2020 New York Times report found that Trump reported $89.9 million in net losses the year before The Apprentice debuted in 2004.
History of Feud
The clash between O'Donnell and Trump dates back to 2006, when she called him a "snake-oil salesman" on The View after he decided not to strip Miss USA Tara Conner of her title following an underage scandal. O'Donnell said, "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!"
Trump responded by calling O'Donnell "a real loser" and "a woman out of control." O'Donnell has claimed the feud led to "the most bullying I ever experienced in my life." After Trump's re-election, he mocked her move to Ireland and threatened to revoke her citizenship. O'Donnell has maintained her stance, calling Trump "a criminal con man, sexual-abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself."
