President Donald Trump’s unhinged reaction to the stabbing deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, which the president gleefully attributed to “the anger” the legendary director “caused others” via his anti-Trump activism in a Monday morning Truth Social post, triggered some of the most unified criticism from the right of Trump’s second term.
On social media, conservative pundits and Fox News stars used words like “disgraceful,” “appalling,” “disgusting,” “unnecessary,” “inappropriate,” “gross,” “awful,” “cruel,” and “insane” to describe Trump gloating about brutal killings. CNN’s MAGA commentators, whose jobs depend on their willingness to defend the president at his most indefensible, were unwilling or unable to back Trump’s self-centered rantings about Reiner. On Fox, coverage of Trump’s comment was nearly nonexistent outside of Special Report; star host Jesse Watters gave a lengthy monologue about the killings and interviewed Reiner friend James Woods, but he aired Trump’s defense of his post without comment beyond noting, “Whoa.”
While Trump has long demonstrated a near-pathological lack of empathy for those who don’t support him, the president’s suggestion that Reiner may have been killed alongside his wife in their home by someone he had “driven … CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump” seemed to hit a nerve even among his supporters. Perhaps this is due to the tragic and deeply human circumstances of the Reiners’ deaths — their son, who has long struggled with drug addiction, is allegedly “responsible,” and was arrested Monday.
But not everyone feels that way. A handful of prominent commentators on the right have risen in support of Trump’s Reiner remarks.
They are justifying Trump’s “mean” comments on the grounds that Reiner is “a loser” who “spent a decade slandering” the president. They are praising Trump for being “very honest” and not “a phony.” They are arguing that complaining about it is stupid because Reiner’s leftist movement purportedly “wants us all dead.” And they are lashing out at those criticizing Trump, calling them “fake grifters” who are “whining like little bitches” about the president.
