The reaction from the media class was swift after President Donald Trump reacted badly to the brutal murder of Rob Reiner and his wife.
The backdrop was a grim and shocking crime. On Sunday, the film director and liberal activist and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested in connection with the murders.
Reiner, long one of Hollywood’s loudest and most unrelenting critics of Trump, became the subject of an explosive presidential response that instantly set off alarm bells across cable news.
President Trump did not mince words.
“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!”
The comment lit up Washington and the press corps alike, and by Monday night, Fox News’ Special Report featured a rare moment of near-unanimity — not in defense of Hollywood, but in criticism of the president’s tone.
Media reporter Howard Kurtz was first up, making clear he disagreed with Trump’s approach despite acknowledging Reiner’s political hostility.
(Video Credit: Fox News)
“Rob Reiner was a very liberal Democrat who had very strong criticism of President Trump,” Kurtz said. “And yet, I have to say, that for the president of the United States to take this family tragedy in which both Reiner and his wife were killed and say that it’s because of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ I thought was well beneath him and beneath the office. And I think it would have been better if the president had made no comment.”
Anchor Bret Baier then rolled tape of Reiner himself from September, when the director condemned the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — a reminder that political violence cuts both ways.
“I unfortunately saw the video of it, and it’s beyond belief what happened to him,” Reiner said at the time. “And that should never happen to anybody. I don’t care what your political beliefs are. That’s not acceptable.”
Baier pointed out that Trump’s remarks had sparked “pushback” from fellow Republicans and turned to Fox contributor Guy Benson.
“As he should,” Benson replied. “There’s a time and place for politics and for trolling. A man being viciously murdered along with his wife, allegedly, at the hand of their own son, is not that time or that place. And for the president to have put this out the way that he did achieves nothing and reflects poorly.”
Still, Trump showed no interest in retreating — a fact Baier underscored by noting the president doubled down when asked about the remarks in the Oval Office, again labeling Reiner “deranged.”
Axios reporter Stef Kight summed up the broader media reaction.
“Trump has continued to double down on his comments despite hearing from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have been pretty clear in condemning the president’s tone,” she said. “And it is unfortunate to have the president of the United States taking a tragedy like this and inserting politics into a situation as sad as the one that led to the Reiners’ death, especially after the year we had, especially after political violence has been such a big issue this year. Whether it was the killing of the state lawmakers in Minnesota earlier this year to the killing of Charlie Kirk, this has been a conversation.”
