‘Golden opportunity for a defamation action’: Rosie O’Donnell’s anti-Trump rant ‘may have crossed the line,’ says Turley
Onetime popular entertainer Rosie O’Donnell has become a one-person attack machine against President Donald Trump these days.
She “seems to spend much of her days in a constant rave about Trump, Republicans, and the demise of the United States from her new home in Ireland. That is fine and an exercise of free speech. However, it may have crossed the line into defamation in her latest posting,” explained constitutional expert Jonathan Turley in a commentary.
In fact, she said, “Did you think it a million years that they would reelect a man who orchestrated an insurrection against the government? They would reelect that guy with all the charges of sex abuse? — the adjudicated rapist…And then I just saw this thing today about all the cases he’s settled with children, children’s families, accusations about him, that he chose to settle. … When are we going to be able to go, ‘We’re grown up enough to understand that this kind of deviant, psychotic, mentally ill behavior goes on at the highest level sometimes, and no matter where it goes on, it is our duty to stop it.'”
Rosie O’Donnell just claimed to her 2.9 million TikTok followers that the President is an “adjudicated rapist” and previously settled child abuse cases. In so doing, she may have handed Trump a golden opportunity for a defamation action. https://t.co/gtHMqAbifr
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) November 19, 2025
Turley, whose expertise in the Constitution and the law has qualified him to advise Congress on those issues, even represent members in court, explained the issue.
“O’Donnell may have supplied the president with another defamation case if she cannot back up sensational claims made against the President to her 2.9 million TikTok followers. She states as a fact that the president is an ‘adjudicated rapist’ and settled child abuse cases.”
Turley noted about a year ago, O’Donnell called Trump a “rapist” and a “serial pedophile rapist.”
A previous case involving such allegations resulted in a jury refusing to “adjudicate” Trump a “rapist,” prompting a leftist judge to issue his own condemnation of Trump.
“Nevertheless, Trump was not legally ‘adjudicated’ to be a rapist,” the commentary said.
Further, “MSNBC and the show ‘Morning Joe,’ for example, quickly retracted a statement that Trump was a ‘rapist,'” he continued. “The second claim is that Trump settled with the ‘children’s families’ over abuse cases.”
O’Donnell wasn’t even “clear what the basis for this allegation is,” Turley said. “It is not clear if O’Donnell can produce support for the claim. If she cannot, it would certainly constitute ‘per se’ defamation.”
He said, “The common law has long recognized per se categories of defamation where damages are presumed and special damages need not be proven. These include: (1) disparaging a person’s professional character or standing; (2) alleging a person is unchaste; (3) alleging that a person has committed a criminal act or act of moral turpitude; (4) alleging a person has a sexual or loathsome disease; and (5) attacking a person’s business or professional reputation.”
A “couple of these categories” could be triggered by O’Donnell’s statements.
“That she said this to millions of followers only magnifies the general damages presumed in such cases. Unless O’Donnell can argue truth as a defense with credible support for such settlements, she may have just given Trump a golden opportunity to pursue his long-time critic.”