While Rosie O’Donnell hasn’t made a habit of sharing space with Donald Trump supporters over the course of their decades-spanning feud, the comedian admitted Wednesday that she maintains a friendship with one — and only one — MAGA voter today: country music star Wynonna Judd.
O’Donnell and Judd have a well-documented 30-year friendship dating back to her talk show days, and it appears to be a bond that the partisan politics of today can’t break.
“I don’t really have any people in my life who support him. I think it would be very difficult to do that,” O’Donnell told “The Tangle” podcast host Kyle Ridley in a Wednesday interview. But she then named her one famous exception.
“Now, I am friends with Wynonna Judd, who I love very much, and I’ve known her for many, many years. And she is a supporter of Trump. And somehow, we never bring it up,” O’Donnell shared when asked if her combative relationship with the president has led to finding common ground or cutting loose from Republican friends. “I kind of give her a grace in a way. She’s had so much in her life with her mom taking her own life and just the complicated nature of her upbringing, and I really love her and I care about her, and for some reason, I’m able to put that aside when we interact.”
O’Donnell continued: “But aside from Wy, I can’t think of anyone else in my life who supports him, and I don’t understand the people who do. His cruelty is so blatant, his criminal behavior is so obvious. His misogyny, his racism, his homophobia. He’s just a very dark spirit, and I don’t know why that’s not obvious to the world.”
It’s not the first time O’Donnell has opened up about her relationship with Judd. In a 2024 TikTok, she used her friendship with the musician as an example of how to respect someone “even though their political views are the polar opposite of yours.”
“I just love her, I love her,” O’Donnell said at the time. “And a lot of people have been writing to me, ‘You know, she’s a Trump supporter.’ I do know that. I do know that, and guess what? I love her still. We have different political beliefs, but in 30 years, it’s never affected our friendship. So proving it’s possible, ladies and gentlemen. It’s possible to love and respect someone even though their political views are the polar opposite of yours. And that’s what we have to get to in this United States. We have to get there somehow.”
O’Donnell has been making the press rounds recently in promotion of her one-woman Off Broadway show “Common Knowledge” and her guest hosting stint on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” kicking off Monday.
Watch her full interview with Ridley on “The Tangle” here.
