Death of director Rob Reiner and his wife | Trump’s remarks outrage even his camp

(Washington) Donald Trump on Monday attributed the murder of Rob Reiner, killed with his wife in their Los Angeles home, to the director’s “rabid” anti-Trumpism. A virulent message which outraged even the conservative camp, even if the American president persisted a few hours later.

The death of the renowned filmmaker, author among others of When Harry Met Sally…would be “due to the anger he aroused in others” with his “anti-Trump neurosis”, asserted Donald Trump on his Truth Social network.

Far from a hypothetical political lead, the police announced that Nick Reiner, the filmmaker’s son who suffered from addiction for a long time, was suspected of being the author of the murders and had been placed in detention.

The Republican billionaire claimed that Rob Reiner “was known for driving people CRAZY with his rabid obsession with President Donald J. Trump,” before accusing the victim of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

This term has been popularized by his supporters to denote what they consider to be irrational hostility against him, to the point of being comparable to mental illness.

Asked by the press at the White House on Monday afternoon to find out if he stood by his comments, Donald Trump attacked the director again.

“He was a disturbed person, in Trump’s opinion,” he said in the third person.

“I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way,” the US president said.

“Done idiot”

Donald Trump, who readily brings current events to his person, is known to be particularly resentful.

Since his return to power, he has also increasingly freed himself from basic conventions or rules of courtesy.

He has said publicly that he “hated” his opponents and did not subscribe to the notion of forgiveness.

His message outraged many political figures.

“The lack of empathy and elegance towards the Reiner family in their moment of deep mourning and grief is pathetic and revealing,” David Axelrod, a former adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama and now a political analyst on CNN, said on X.

“He knows no shame. A complete idiot,” scathed the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer.

Republican elected official Thomas Massie, who frequently opposes Donald Trump, also criticized the president’s reaction.

“Whatever you thought of Rob Reiner, these were inappropriate and disrespectful statements about a man who was just brutally murdered,” he said on X.

The elected representative of the radical right Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trumpist from the start but who has distanced herself from the president in recent months, also spoke of the pain of those close to the director and his wife.

“This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies,” she said in a post on X alongside an image of Donald Trump’s post.

“Awful response”

Don Bacon, a Republican elected official who will not run for re-election in 2026, told CNN he expected “to hear something like that from a drunk man in a bar, not from the President of the United States.”

However, few right-wing leaders dare to directly oppose the tenant of the White House.

Some Truth Social users welcomed Donald Trump’s initial post, but others expressed disappointment.

“Awful response to this tragedy, unworthy of the office of president. I voted for you three times, but this is crossing the line,” said one of them, under the pseudonym “45 Liberty Lady”.

For some commentators on the right, the president has lost the opportunity to remain silent.

Calling it “so disappointing” and “so unnecessary,” former sports journalist Sage Steele, now a conservative podcast host, said “it’s comments like these that spoil the countless great things that Donald Trump is doing for the United States.”