Donald Trump

Even Trump's Supporters Are Slamming His Post About Rob Reiner's Murder

The president failed a not particularly challenging moral test.

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Being outraged by President Donald Trump's offensive remarks is passe at this late hour, and largely pointless: His most ardent supporters excuse his coarseness, and his detractors already regard him as the lowest of lowlifes. Those who fall somewhere in the middle are understandably more worked up about his policy agenda than his mean tweets.

Yet even by the standards of previous nastiness, Trump's comments on Truth Social about Rob Reiner—who was murdered alongside his wife, Michele Reiner, over the weekend—were distressing. Rob Reiner was a well-liked director responsible for such iconic films as A Few Good Men, This Is Spinal Tap, and The Princess Bride. Yes, he also harbored intensely anti-Trump views and criticized the president obsessively on social media. The occasion of his shocking murder—a murder allegedly perpetrated by his son, Nick Reiner, who has suffered from drug addiction and homelessness—is not a fitting time for the president to whine about this, however.

Yet whine he did. As most people, including many conservatives, posted tributes to Reiner on social media, Trump said this:

"A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood," he wrote on Truth Social. "Rob Reiner, 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. 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, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!"

This was very wrong. Reiner's intense anti-Trump politics had nothing to do with his death. There is no reason to think that the alleged killer was motivated by political considerations at all. By suggesting that Reiner's "Trump derangement syndrome" was connected to his death, Trump is introducing a false notion. Note that this was the ostensible reason for the sanctioning of comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who incorrectly stated the motivations for the killing of conservative figure Charlie Kirk. Trump should have avoided making the same mistake.

He should also have avoided dwelling on his personal feud with a man who was just murdered in gruesome fashion. If he didn't feel like saying anything nice about Reiner, he could have opted to say nothing at all.

Trump's comments drew stern rebukes from Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, both of whom are diehard America First Republicans, though currently estranged from the president. Plenty of Trump voters seemed perturbed by his statement as well.

As they should be. Trump has shown that he is capable of magnanimity, but for whatever reason, he utterly failed this week's not particularly challenging moral test.