President Donald Trump is facing fierce blowback from figures across the political spectrum, including some members of his own party, after baselessly suggesting that the deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, were a result of the director’s fervent criticism of the President.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
Less than 24 hours after the Reiners were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home on Sunday, Trump lambasted Rob Reiner for his political beliefs, posting on Truth Social that his death was “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” and that Reiner “was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump.”
Trump doubled down on his attacks on Reiner later in the day, telling reporters that the director “became like a deranged person, Trump Derangement Syndrome. So I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country.”
Reiner was an outspoken critic of Trump and—along with his wife—a Democratic fundraiser and advocate for liberal causes. The couple’s son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested and booked on suspicion of murder in the case. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has yet to file criminal charges, but the Los Angeles Police Department has called Nick Reiner “responsible for their deaths.” The authorities have not indicated any link between Rob Reiner’s politics and his death.
Read more: Rob Reiner Did Nothing by Half Measures
Trump’s attacks on the director in the wake of his death have drawn outcry from some members of the GOP, ranging from those who have been closely allied with the President to others who have repeatedly and publicly spoken against him.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told CNN’s Manu Raju at the Capitol that “President Trump should have said nothing.”
“A wise man once said nothing,” the Senator said. “Why? Because he’s a wise man.”
Republican Reps. Mike Lawler of New York and Don Bacon of Nebraska, who both represent districts that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race, rejected Trump’s attack on Reiner more forcefully.
“This statement is wrong,” Lawler wrote in a post on X. “Regardless of one’s political views, no one should be subjected to violence, let alone at the hands of their own son. It’s a horrible tragedy that should engender sympathy and compassion from everyone in our country, period.”
Speaking to CNN, Bacon said: “I’d expect to hear something like this from a drunk guy at a bar, not the President of the United States. Can the President be presidential?”
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has become increasingly critical of Trump in recent months, further rebuked the President over his comments while calling for empathy for the Reiner family.
“Rob Reiner and his wife 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,” Greene posted on X. “This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies. Many families deal with a family member with drug addiction and mental health issues. It’s incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder.”
Greene, once one of the President’s most vocal supporters, has clashed with Trump on issues related to affordability, foreign policy, H1-B visas for foreign workers in specialty occupations, and whether to release files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Tensions between the two broke open last month when Trump publicly withdrew support from Greene after she broke with him over the Epstein files, calling her a “traitor” and a “disgrace” to the Republican Party. Greene has since announced she will leave Congress in January, taking aim at Trump’s Make America Great Again Party in a blistering resignation letter.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of the most vocal Trump critics in the GOP conference, also slammed the President’s remarks about Reiner.
Massie, a hardline conservative, endorsed Trump in the 2024 general election despite clashing with him repeatedly during the President’s first term. But he has since regularly broken with the President on key issues and in turn been targeted by Trump, who has called for his ouster from Congress in the coming midterms. Massie was outspoken this year in his opposition to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, ultimately becoming one of just two House Republicans to vote against the signature piece of the President’s second-term agenda, and was a leading voice in opposing military intervention in Iran.
Massie called the President’s remarks on Reiner “inappropriate and disrespectful” in a post on X, adding, “I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid? I challenge anyone to defend it.”
Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who represented Trump during and after the 2020 election , also said the President’s words were “NOT the appropriate response.”
Ellis pointed to Republicans’ condemnations of “political and celebratory responses” after the shooting of conservative commentator and close Trump ally Charlie Kirk in September, adding, “This is a horrible example from Trump (and surprising considering the two attempts on his own life) and should be condemned by everyone with any decency.”
Republican Rep. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma also knocked Trump’s comments, saying in response to his Truth Social post that “we should be lifting the family up in prayer, not making this about politics.”
David Urban, a former senior adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign, told CNN that the President’s Truth Social post “is indefensible by anybody. I don’t know how anyone can defend it.”
Urban suggested that the remarks could hurt the Republican Party as it seeks to hold onto its slim majority in the House in next year’s selection. “I think the President forgot elections are about addition, one plus one plus one, and as we head into the midterms I’m wondering, you know, how many Republicans were added to the voter rolls today,” he said. “I think none.”
Reiner called the President “a criminal” and a liar in a 2024 interview with the Guardian. And in September, the director warned that Trump posed a threat to voting rights in an interview with MS NOW.
“Make no mistake: We have a year before this country becomes a full on autocracy and democracy completely leaves us,” Reiner said.
The post ‘Should Have Said Nothing’: Trump’s Rob Reiner Attacks Draw Republican Rebuke appeared first on TIME.
