Trump’s Vile Post About Rob Reiner Has Some Republicans Breaking Ranks

President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday about Rob Reiner, who was found dead in his Los Angeles home Sunday along with his wife. Trump’s post about the beloved 78-year-old director was even more vile than most people were expecting. And even some Republicans are expressing their distaste for Trump’s reprehensible words.

“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood,” Trump started his post, sent shortly before 10 a.m. Monday.

“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,” Trump’s post continued.

Reiner’s 32-year-old son was reportedly arrested and charged with murder and there’s no evidence the director and his wife were killed “due to anger he caused” related to Trump in any way.

“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!” Trump concluded.

When news broke of Reiner’s death, which is being investigated as a homicide, there was an immediate outpouring of grief on social media Sunday night. People shared clips of his work and said they were watching some of their favorite Reiner films, which include such classics as The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, and Stand By Me, among a host of others. But as Sunday night wore on, people started to wonder what the inevitable Trump tweet might look like. Reiner had long been active in Democratic Party politics, and was naturally disgusted with Trump’s fascist and racist policies, as so many Americans are.

“[H]e’s going to bring up that Reiner was not a fan of his,” actor Diedrich Bader predicted late Sunday on Bluesky.

Somehow, it was so much worse. And some of the president’s most ardent fans seem to be disgusted. Elected Republicans who’ve been previously criticized by Trump for their desire to have the Jeffrey Epstein files released, including Rep. Thomas Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, were the first to come out against Trump’s deplorable comments.

“Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered,” Massie wrote on X. “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.”

Greene, who recently announced she’s retiring next month, echoed a similar sentiment, writing, “This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies.” About an hour later, Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York, quote-tweeted Trump’s statement, describing Reiner’s death as a “horrible tragedy that should engender sympathy and compassion from everyone in our country, period.”

Rep. Stephanie Bice, a Republican from Oklahoma, wrote, “A father and mother were murdered at the hands of their troubled son. We should be lifting the family up in prayer, not making this about politics.”

Many Trump fans still expressed their support for Trump’s sentiment. A common defense was that Reiner called for Trump to be arrested after the president attempted a self-coup at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a bid to cling to power. Others pointed to a tweet from Reiner describing Trump as a “symbol of hate,” a statement of fact that was true in 2021 and has been shown to be more true with each passing day. As just one very recent example, Trump said he doesn’t want Somali-Americans in the country, referring to them as “garbage.”

Trump was asked about his comments regarding Reiner by a reporter at the White House on Monday. And he just reiterated his contemptible message of hate.

“Mr. President, a number of Republicans have denounced your statement on True Social after the murder of Rob Reiner. Do you stand by that post?” the reporter asked.

Democratic political figures, along with every normal American, expressed sadness in the wake of Reiner’s death. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, wrote about Trump’s post: “This is one of the cruelest things I’ve ever heard a president say. He is well known for his cruelty, but this is a new depth amid this terrible murder.”

Former president Barack Obama wrote his condolences on Sunday night, before Trump’s post Monday, but it reads like a message from another political universe. Obama shared the kind of message that would’ve been sent about the passing of an American icon by any other president in the pre-Trump era.

Michelle and I are heartbroken by the tragic passing of Rob Reiner and his beloved wife, Michele. Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen. But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 15, 2025

Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, wrote about Trump’s post: “TOXIC NARCISSISM: When you see the brutal murder of two people and make it about you, because you think everything is about you.”

Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona who’s been a frequent target of Trump recently, perhaps put it best of any politician on social media Monday: “What kind of person, let alone a President, reacts to the murder of an American this way?”

Trump is often discussed as one of the worst presidents in modern American history, but it’s important to remember that such a categorization is far too narrow. Donald J. Trump is one of the worst people in modern American history.