As Hollywood mourns the death of film and television legend Rob Reiner, U.S. President Donald Trump blasted the actor-director in a social media post Monday that observers say was remarkably uncouth — even for him.
Trump bizarrely claimed Reiner, a long-time supporter of Democratic causes, died on account of the anger he instigated as a result of his own “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Los Angeles police are investigating Reiner and his wife’s death not as a medical incident at all but as a possible homicide. The couple were reportedly stabbed to death.
“A tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS,” Trump wrote.
“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness,” he said on Truth Social.
WATCH | Trump doubles down on Rob Reiner criticism after backlash:
Trump doubles down on Rob Reiner criticism after backlash
At an unrelated event in the Oval Office on Tuesday, a reporter asked Donald Trump if he stood by his social media post about slain actor and director Rob Reiner after it received swift bipartisan criticism. Trump replied that he was not a Reiner fan and repeated his accusation that the director had ‘Trump derangement syndrome.’
Speaking later at an unrelated news conference in the Oval Office, Trump doubled down, saying Reiner was “very bad for our country.”
“He was a deranged person as far as Trump’s concerned,” he said, referring to himself in the third person.
The comments have generated a wave of criticism as yet another step too far by a president who’s taken a few, including from Trump ally-turned-foe Marjorie Taylor Greene, who alleged the Reiners were “tragically killed at the hands of their own son, who reportedly had drug addiction and other issues, and their remaining children are left in serious mourning and heartbreak.”
The couple’s 32-year-old son, Nick, was arrested and being held without bail, according to a Los Angeles Police Department news release. Police Chief Jim McDonnell said he has been “booked for murder.”
WATCH | Rob Reiner, dead at 78:
Hollywood legend Rob Reiner dead at 78
Rob Reiner, the esteemed Hollywood director, was found dead along with wife Michele Reiner in their Los Angeles home. Their son Nick is in police custody in connection with their deaths. CBC’s Griffin Jaeger breaks down the legacy of the 78-year-old director and his impact on the film industry.
“This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies,” said the Georgia congresswoman, who has announced she’s stepping down early in the new year after her own high-profile fracas with Trump. The president’s attacks on the one-time stalwart supporter has resulted in an onslaught of online abuse and death threats, according to Greene.
“Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered,” Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said of Trump’s post.
“This rhetoric divides the country, paints targets on private citizens and risks inciting political violence. A president should lower the temperature, not inflame it,” added Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland.
Trump has a history of harsh responses to the deaths of people who have criticized him. He grumbled about giving celebrated war hero, senator and presidential candidate John McCain a state funeral, saying he wasn’t a “fan” of the Republican.
Speaking of McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Trump famously quipped, “I like people that weren’t captured, okay? I hate to tell you.”
Unbecoming of a president
Gil Troy, a U.S. presidential historian and distinguished scholar of North American history at McGill University, said Trump’s Reiner remarks are “obscene, horrific and crass” and unbecoming of a president.
Troy said past presidents like Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton served as “consolers-in-chief,” using inspiring oratory to comfort the nation in moments of tragedy, such as the Challenger space shuttle disaster or the Oklahoma City bombing.
Reagan eulogized the lost astronauts, saying “the future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted; it belongs to the brave.” Clinton said the domestic terrorists who blew up that federal building in 1995 “wanted to tear us apart, but they have only bound us closer together.”
Trump, meanwhile, is showing he’s become “narcissist-in-chief,” Troy said in an interview with CBC News, and “it’s a stunning breaking from presidential tradition.”
“Whether or not one agrees with Trump’s policies, his approach so frequently has been not just unpresidential but indecent.”
Aren Almon greets President Bill Clinton after a prayer service for the victims of the deadly truck bomb attack in Oklahoma City on April 23, 1995. (Pat Sullivan/The Associated Press)
In the Republican system, where the president is more than just a legislator but rather a leader who has “kingly” roles, Troy said it’s Trump’s duty to provide comfort, empathy and reassurance at moments like this.
“But he has trouble pulling himself out of the gutter. It’s completely disrespectful, and it harms the soul of the nation and undermines the power of the presidency,” Troy said.
“When we talk about the vulgarization of America, the coarsening of the American mind — we can use this as exhibit A, B and C. It teaches people to approach politics and culture and one another in horrific ways.”
WATCH | L.A. police chief says Nick Reiner in custody, ‘booked for murder’:
L.A. police chief says Nick Reiner is in custody, ‘booked for murder’
Jim McDonnell, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, confirmed Monday that Nick Reiner is in custody and was ‘booked for murder and is being held on $4 million bail’ in connection with the killings of celebrated director Rob Reiner and his producer wife, Michele. The police chief did not mention any connection between the victims and the accused, but media reports have said the suspect in custody is the Reiners’ son.
Trump’s latest screed stands in stark contrast to how Reiner responded to the recent death of conservative activist — and Trump friend — Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in what officials have called a politically motivated attack.
Reiner said that the brutal shooting death of the young Kirk was “an absolute horror” and “beyond belief.”
“That should never happen to anybody. I don’t care what your political beliefs are,” Reiner said in an interview with Piers Morgan, a former Trump acolyte. “That’s not acceptable. That’s not the solution to solving problems.”
Reiner, who starred as Archie Bunker’s liberal son-in-law in the hit sitcom All in the Family before directing iconic films like The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally, added he was touched by Erika Kirk’s message of forgiveness at the Turning Point USA founder’s memorial service.
“What she said to me was beautiful. She forgave his assassin and I think that is admirable,” Reiner said.
President Donald Trump hugs Erika Kirk at the conclusion of a memorial for her husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, on Sept. 21 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press)
Still, Trump’s animus likely comes from Reiner’s outspokenness about what he perceived as the president’s threat to democracy and the rule of law.
While he initially supported former president Joe Biden for re-election, Reiner emerged as a vocal critic of the Democrat, joining other Hollywood luminaries in calling for his resignation after a disastrous presidential debate performance.
“It’s time to stop f–king around. If the Convicted Felon wins, we lose our Democracy. Joe Biden has effectively served the US with honor, decency, and dignity. It’s time for Joe Biden to step down,” Reiner said in a social media post at the time.
The late actor-director said in a recent interview with MSNBC that the U.S. is in danger of becoming an autocracy on Trump’s watch.
“Make no mistake; we have a year before this country becomes a full-on autocracy, and democracy completely leaves us,” Reiner said.
And while Trump spoke poorly about Reiner only hours after his passing, the U.S. president owed something to his late wife, Michele.
She was the photographer who captured the image of Trump that appears on the cover of his first book, Trump: The Art of the Deal — a piece that catapulted him from a middling Manhattan real estate developer to media sensation and household name.
Among the pieces of business advice he relayed to readers in that bestseller: Denigrate your competition to try and get what you want.
Beyond Trump’s broadside, Reiner received posthumous tributes from former president Barack Obama, former vice-president Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, among others.
“Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen. But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people — and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action,” Obama said.
