Rob Reiner, a well-known Hollywood figure and outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, has posthumously drawn Trump’s ire.
WASHINGTON — On Monday, former President Donald Trump, without offering any evidence, suggested that the murder of renowned filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, was somehow linked to their political beliefs.
In a social media post, Trump attempted to associate Reiner’s tragic death with his outspoken opposition to Trump’s policies.
“The anger he stirred in others due to his intense and unwavering obsession with the so-called ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ is to blame,” Trump wrote.
Reiner had publicly criticized Trump, once labeling him “mentally unfit” for the presidency in a 2017 interview. His critiques continued into Trump’s tenure, and in an October interview with MS NOW, Reiner cautioned, “Our democracy is being eroded, and we have a limited time to act.”
The celebrated director and actor, along with his wife Michele Singer Reiner, were discovered dead in their Southern California residence on Sunday night. Authorities are treating the case as an “apparent homicide.”
On Monday, police arrested Nick Reiner, the younger of Rob Reiner’s two sons, for the murder of his parents.
In his post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that Reiner was obsessed with him.
The president’s full statement can be read below:
“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. 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!”
Later, Trump doubled down on his statements when speaking to reporters at the White House Monday afternoon. After being asked if he stood by his early posts, using the third person, Trump said Reiner “was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned.”
“I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way shape or form,” Trump said. “I thought he was very bad for our country.”
Police and law enforcement sources have given no indication that the deaths of Rob and Michele Singer Reiner were politically motivated in any way.
It is not the first time Trump has publicly attacked a perceived enemy, even after they have died.
His feud with the late Sen. John McCain is well documented, with Trump continuing to blast McCain after his death in 2018.
The president said McCain “didn’t get the job done for our great vets and the VA.”
“Not my kind of guy,” Trump said at the time. “But some people like him and I think that’s great.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
