President Donald Trump has faced widespread condemnation after blaming the death of filmmaker Rob Reiner on what he called the director’s ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’. Reiner and his wife Michele were found dead at their Los Angeles home on Sunday; their son Nick has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
In a social media post, Trump described Reiner as ‘tortured and struggling’ and claimed he died ‘due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind-crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME’. The president then praised his own administration, asserting he had ‘surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness’.
Later, during a White House event, Trump doubled down, calling Reiner ‘a deranged person’ and accusing him of promoting the ‘Russia hoax’. He suggested Reiner had ‘hurt himself career-wise’ by criticising him.
Celebrities and lawmakers swiftly condemned the remarks. Actor Patrick Schwarzenegger called them ‘disgusting and vile’, while Whoopi Goldberg said she did not understand how the president could show ‘no shame’. California Governor Gavin Newsom described Trump as ‘a sick man’, and Senator Chris Murphy said the president had ‘lost it’.
Even some Republicans criticised the comments. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene called the tragedy ‘not about politics’, and Representative Thomas Massie said the discourse was ‘inappropriate and disrespectful’. Massie challenged anyone in his party to defend Trump’s remarks.
Reiner had long been a vocal critic of Trump, once calling him ‘mentally unfit’ and warning that a second Trump term could lead to autocracy. Police have confirmed that the Reiners’ son, Nick, 32, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held on $4m bail.
