Rosie O’Donnell tells CNN she and her ‘non-binary child’ fled to Ireland due to ‘Project 2025,’ Trump re-election

The former talk show host told CNN in an interview that she moved because of “Project 2025,” which she said she did not want to live under as she has a non-binary child, Clay. She stated that she was happy with her new life in Ireland.

“I have no regrets. Not a day has gone by that I thought it was the wrong decision,” she said. “I was welcomed with open arms.”

“I knew that after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my non-binary child to leave the country.”

O'Donnell clarified that, unlike celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and America Ferrera, who publicly vowed to leave the US before the election, she stayed quiet and made the decision privately. “I made the decision within my family and my therapist,” she said.

When Trump won, O'Donnell said, "we made the plan into action and we were gone before he was inaugurated.”

A longtime critic of Trump, O'Donnell said she has been “heartbroken” by what the president has done in his first few months in office.

"I knew that if I was in the United States and watched him destroy the country and the constitution, and really pay no mind to any of the laws that the Founders stood by and that our country stands for as a beacon of shining light and freedom for the rest of the world. That should he do what the Heritage Foundation said he was going to do, in that Project 2025, that we were going to be in big trouble. It's as bad as they promised, and even a little bit worse, it's been heartbreaking and very, very sad to watch," she said.

O’Donnell first announced that she had hopped over to the Emerald Isle in March, in a nine-minute-long video where she criticized Trump, as he has done for years. In a recent video, the 62-year-old revealed that the emotional strain she's claimed to endure due to Trump’s return had pushed her to leave the country. Unable to handle the idea of staying, she departed for Ireland on January 15, just ahead of the Inauguration.

O'Donnell said that life abroad has been treating her well. While she’s enjoying her new surroundings, she admitted there are aspects of American life she already misses. “It's been pretty wonderful, I have to say. The people are so loving and so kind, so welcoming. And I'm very grateful.”

“I was never someone who thought I would move to another country, that's what I decided would be the best for myself and my 12-year-old child. And here we are.”

“I miss many things about life there at home and I'm trying to find a home here in this beautiful country.”

O’Donnell was also critical of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, calling his comments on autistic children “dehumanizing.”

“I think it’s very disrespectful. I think it’s disgraceful, and I think he is wholly unqualified to be the head of Health and Human Services,” O’Donnell said.

Kennedy’s comments were regarding severely autistic children, who he said would never “pay taxes,” “hold a job,” or “play baseball,” among several other accurate descriptors of how debilitating severe cases of autism can be. One of O’Donnell’s children is autistic.