I’m not going to exert myself too much in defending what President Trump said on Truth Social after, we think, filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered by their drug-addicted, mentally-ill son Nick. It came off as nasty, though pretty much everything Trump said about Reiner was true.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 15, 2025
We’re taught not to say terrible things about the recently departed. When someone dies, it’s generally accepted that whatever harm they’ve caused is over now, and so out of respect to their loved ones we take the foot off the gas and go easy on them.
Trump didn’t. He unloaded on Reiner and said he was a bad guy and that not only was he crazy but he contributed to the lunacy of others.
These things are true, but it shocks the sensibilities a bit to see them blasted out by the President of the United States upon word Reiner and his wife had been slaughtered.
And because of that, Trump caught a bunch of backlash for his remarks. Most of it came courtesy of people who’ve been saying the same stuff about Trump that Reiner did. But not all of it was. For example, Sen. John Kennedy was somewhat mild in his rebuke of Trump, but a rebuke it was…
Some lawmakers are condemning President Donald Trump’s reaction to the murder of actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele.
President Trump said he wasn’t a fan of Reiner.
“Well, I wasn’t a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. He said he liked… he knew it was false. In fact, it’s the exact opposite, that I was a friend of Russia, controlled by Russia. You know, it was the Russia hoax. He was one of the people behind it. I think he hurt himself in career-wise, so he became like a deranged person. Trump derangement syndrome,” Trump said.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, criticized the president’s remarks.
“A wise man once said nothing. Why? Because he’s a wise man. I think President Trump should have said nothing. I think when the president says these sorts of things, it detracts from his policy achievements and his agenda. And just speaking personally, when someone is murdered or assassinated, as happened to Mr. Kirk, we should show him and his family respect,” Kennedy said.
President Trump said the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk was “the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree.”
But on Monday, syndicated radio host Michael Berry said this…
“I don’t think Rob Reiner was a good guy. In fact, I think he was an awful human being. Ramone, If you would cue the audio of him lying about Donald Trump… Donald Trump has infuriated the left with some pretty snarky commentary on Rob Reiner, you can read it for yourself. And people will say, ‘how can he do that?’ New York Times calling it deranged.
I don’t think anybody can understand what Donald Trump’s been through, I don’t think they care to. You could say, well, I wish Trump wouldn’t have said that… I wish they wouldn’t have indicted him over 30 times. I wish they wouldn’t have raided his home. I wish these people hadn’t called for his murder. I wish when he was shot in the head they hadn’t said, ‘I’m sorry they missed’. Donald Trump is just a tip of the spear of the cultural war you are engaged in and if you don’t know you’re engaged in it, God bless you, cuz you’re the deer headed to the saltlick and you’re gonna get blasted. They are coming at you from every different direction, forces of evil, and I truly believe Rob Reiner was one of those. Sure I think it’s awful to be killed by your own son who you’re trying to help, I’ll leave it there.”
People have been sharing the video of Reiner going on Piers Morgan’s show following Charlie Kirk’s assassination and condemning it, praising Erica Kirk for forgiving her husband’s murderer and saying it was wrong that Kirk would have been killed for his beliefs.
Rob Reiner responded with grace and compassion to Charlie's assassination. This video makes it all the more painful to hear of he and his wife's tragic end. May God be close to the broken hearted in this terrible story. https://t.co/07g2EFu8Ha
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) December 15, 2025
And that was a good moment for Reiner.
But Berry is correct.
It isn’t necessary, nor is it particularly worthwhile, to defend what Trump said about Reiner. He said what he said, and it’s not unreasonable to be put off by the tone of it.
At the same time, given the 10-year campaign of defamation and character assassination that Rob Reiner engaged in against Donald Trump, a campaign that none of Trump’s critics have ever had to deal with, it’s also not unreasonable to discount Trump’s remarks.
Sure, it’s a bad look. But it seems like if you want to judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. And Trump endured some of the most salacious lies imaginable at the hands of Reiner, who fanned the flames of the Russia hoax and called Trump Hitler and a pedophile regularly.
And it wasn’t that Reiner was some loon or a hermit. In fact, on the night they were murdered, Rob and Michele Reiner were supposed to have dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama. Rob Reiner was still very much relevant within the sphere of cultural and political elite in this country even despite the atrocious, low-class falsehoods he was spreading about the President of the United States.
And all the while, Reiner’s son Nick had crashed. Drug-addicted, mentally ill, incapable of functioning, he apparently found himself cut off by his parents and he showed up and killed them both.
How could you spend your time on social media trashing a politician while your own son is falling apart so badly he kills you with a knife?
That’s a lot worse look for Rob Reiner than Trump’s remarks are for Trump, though it’s certainly true that the optics of neither are positive.
Perhaps Trump thought it was worth taking the arrows to call out the pathology of what Reiner had dedicated his life to. Maybe he’s wrong about that, maybe not. But unless you’ve been subjected to that pathology, it might be worth pausing a bit before you attack Trump for responding to it as he did.
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