Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the last two decades, it should come as no surprise that Rosie O’Donnell has issues with Donald Trump. The two have engaged in verbal sparring for years. She threatened to leave the country if he was elected president the first time he ran. He’s threatened to remove her citizenship. Now, on the heels of yet another comment by Trump about a female member of the media, Rosie went on a tirade against the president, demanding to know why members of the White House Press Corps didn’t stand up to decry how he verbally “raped” her. Yep, here’s Rosie at her finest.

Before we go any further, I have a confession to make. When I sat down to write this post, I was all set to poke fun at Rosie. But the more I prepped and the more I wrote, the more I realized there are some uncomfortable questions we must ask ourselves about the comments she’s upset about. As a mother, I raised my son to treat people with respect. In business, I learned quickly that you need to filter what you’re thinking before opening your mouth. I’ll admit Trump’s recent comments to female reporters have made me more than a little uncomfortable. Hearing the President of the United States say, “Quiet, Piggy,” shocked me. Hearing him call another “ugly” was no better. Just the other day, he called yet another female reporter “dumb”. My son’s a grown man. But if I heard him saying such things in his professional role, his ears would be bleeding by the time I finished letting him know what I thought.

Let’s face it, if an executive in the private sector said such things about reporters interviewing him in the course of business or–worse–employees, said executive would find themselves in hot water. At best, they’d face “counseling” and sensitivity training. Realistically, they’d find themselves demoted, if not fired, and in the center of lawsuits. So, in a way, it doesn’t take much effort to understand why so many people are upset with Trump and his comments.

Still, we need to look at the Rosie factor. Her obsession with Trump has been covered here before. She finally kept her promise to leave the country–although she’s been making noises about returning–and moved to Ireland with one of her kids. So why is she still obsessed with Donald Trump? It certainly can’t be because she really cares about what happens to this country. If she cared that much, she’d have stayed and fought for her beliefs instead of running away.

No, she’s no longer in the spotlight. Her talk show is nothing but a vague memory. The View moved on without her–and without much of a backward glance. A look at her IMDB page shows she’s made appearances on different shows, but nothing like the daily exposure she used to get. Could this be her latest attempt to be relevant? You betcha.

She’s allowed to be upset if she doesn’t agree with something Trump says. However, castigating the White House Press Corps (which I have little use for, by the way) and accusing its members of letting Trump get away with “verbal rape” is an insult. She needs to look up the definition of the word rape. She needs to actually listen to what Jim Acosta said in response to to her comments on his show. He probably has the right of it when he said the reporters said nothing at the time because they’ve been instructed by their bosses to keep their mouths shut. They know the power to decide who makes it inside the press room lies with the White House, not the media outlets. Rock the boat too much and you don’t get a seat.

But that doesn’t excuse what Trump said. He could have made his point without the personal attacks and insults. If it had been Biden or Obama or Clinton who called a female reporter “ugly” or “stupid” or told her “quiet, piggy”, we’d have been up in arms. To have press secretary Karoline Leavitt stand up and defend his comments is uncomfortable, to say the least. Worse, it gives those sitting on the fence about the Trump Administration, and the Republican Party as a whole, a reason to second guess supporting his policies. It has become a rallying point for the Democrats.

In short, there are now folks out there wondering if Rosie’s case of Trump Derangement Syndrome isn’t as extreme as they once thought.

And the moment they start wondering if she’s making sense is when the rest of us have to worry. Does she have a Trump problem or does Trump have a Rosie problem?

The next few months are going to be interesting, and not necessarily in a good way, as some of the questions we asked about Biden are asked–with answers demanded– about Trump. The outcome of the next presidential race will hinge on how those questions are handled and on how Trump and the rest of his team act going forward.

Featured image: Rosie O’Donnell at the premiere of I Am Because We Are at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival by David Shankbone. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation