Trump’s cruel response to Reiner shows us-versus-them presidency
When news of Rob Reiner’s senseless death broke, America fell into familiar rites of mourning and remembrance. A cascade of tributes poured in from the twin worlds – Hollywood and politics – that the actor, director and liberal activist inhabited.
Through the shock and the fog, before all but the sketchiest details were known, President Trump also weighed in, pushing through his diarrheic compulsion to ponder just about every passing event, as if he had been elected not to govern but to serve as America’s commentator-in-chief.
Trump’s response, which faltered somewhat at Reiner’s grave as he falsely attributed his death to an act of political vengeance, managed to plumb new depths of callousness and cruelty; More than a decade after his emergence as a political force, the president still manages to surprise.
But as vile and tasteless as Trump’s self-pitying statement was — Reiner, he claimed, was a victim of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and, essentially, got what he deserved — it also underscored a singular truism of his vengeful residency in the Oval Office.
For the past several decades, the country has had a president who lied and deceived to cover up his personal vices. Another one that plunged the country into a costly and unnecessary war. A third whose stubbornness and vanity led him to extend his term, thereby harming his party and America.
Yet everyone acted as if he were the president of all the people, not just those who elected him, contributed generously to his campaign, or blindly applauded his every move, no matter how reckless or ill-considered.
As Trump has made clear repeatedly, he sees the world in black and white, red versus blue, us versus them.
There are the states he carried that deserve federal funding. Voters whose support entitles them to food assistance and other benefits. Courtiers received medals and presidential honors.
And then there are his critics and his political opponents – those he proudly hates and it must be acknowledged – whose suffering, even their disappearance, he openly relishes.
When Charlie Kirk was killed, Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff. He flew to Arizona to hold his memorial service. His vice president, JD Vance, suggested people should be fired for disrespecting the late conservative provocateur.
By contrast, when a gunman killed former Democratic Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Melissa Hortman, Trump could not have bothered with a simple act of mercy. Asked if he had called to offer condolences to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a personal friend of Hortman’s, Trump responded, “Why waste time?”
This is not normal, even less human.
This is not politics as usual, or someone rewarding allies and seeking to disadvantage the political opposition, as all presidents have done. He is the country’s chief executive who uses the immense powers of his office and the world’s largest and loudest megaphone to exact revenge, ruin people’s lives, inflict misery – and revel in the pain.
There were the usual denunciations of Trump’s callous and dismissive response to Reiner’s stabbing death.
“I would expect to hear something like that from a drunk guy at a bar, not from the president of the United States,” said Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who is retiring rather than seeking re-election in 2026. (Which may be why he was so outspoken and spoke so courageously.)
But this time, the criticism hasn’t come just from the typical anti-Trump chorus, or from heterodox Republicans like Bacon and MAGA stalwart-turned-provocateur Marjorie Taylor Greene. Even some of the president’s oldest and most vocal defenders felt compelled to speak out.
“This is a terrible thing to say about a man who has just been murdered by his troubled son,” British broadcaster Piers Morgan posted on X. “Delete it, Mr President.”
But the response from Republican Party leadership was more telling.
“I don’t have much else to say about it other than it’s a tragedy, and my sympathies and prayers go out to the Reiner family and their friends,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN when asked about Trump’s response. House Speaker Mike Johnson responded in the same, insensitive vein.
Clearly, the impulse to not see and hear evil remains strong in the upper echelons of the Republican Party — at least until new election results show the price Republicans are paying as Trump continues to put personal vendettas ahead of voters’ personal finances.
One of the enduring reasons supporters say they support the president is Trump’s alleged honesty. (Never mind the many well-documented lies he told on a near-constant basis.)
Honesty, in this sense, means saying things that a more sober and cautious politician would never say, and that is a strange thing to tolerate in the country’s greatest leader. Those who have even a modicum of caring and compassion, who would never tell a friend they are ugly or call a neighbor stupid – and who expect the same respect and decency in return – routinely ignore or explain away such casual cruelty when it comes from this president.
Those who insist that Trump can do nothing wrong, who defend his every crude utterance, or who engage in relativism to downplay it, must not remain in his constant grip.
When Trump crosses a line so blatantly, when his nastiness is so outlandish and his nastiness so blatant — as was the case when he mocked Reiner in his death — then even the president’s most ardent supporters should call him out.
Do it and reclaim a little piece of your humanity.
