{"id":449776,"date":"2025-12-16T00:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/449776\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T00:30:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:30:23","slug":"trumps-callous-political-attack-on-rob-reiner-shows-a-shameful-moral-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/449776\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s callous political attack on Rob Reiner shows a shameful moral failure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hours after Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were found dead in their home in what is shaping up to be a heartbreaking family tragedy, our president blamed Reiner<\/a> for his own death. <\/p>\n

\u201cA 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,\u201d President Trump wrote<\/a> on his social media platform. \u201cHe 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!\u201d <\/p>\n

Then, in the Oval Office, Trump doubled down on Reiner.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a deranged person,\u201d Trump said in response to a reporter\u2019s question about his social media post. \u201cI was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rest in peace, indeed. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a message steeped in cruelty and delusion, unbelievable and despicable even by the low, buried-in-the-dirt bar by which we have collectively come to judge Trump. In a town \u2014 and a time \u2014 of selfishness and self-serving, Reiner was one of the good guys, always fighting, both through his films and his politics, to make the world kinder and closer. And yes, that meant fighting against Trump and his increasingly erratic and authoritarian rule. <\/p>\n

For years, Reiner made the politics of inclusion and decency central to his life. He was a key player in overturning California\u2019s ban on same-sex marriage<\/a> and fought to expand early childhood education. <\/p>\n

For the last few months, he was laser-focused on the upcoming midterms as the last and best chance of protecting American democracy \u2014 which clearly enraged Trump. <\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake, we have a year before this country becomes a full on autocracy,\u201d Reiner told MSNBC host Ali Velshi in October. \u201cPeople care about their pocketbook issues, the price of eggs. They care about their healthcare, and they should. Those are the things that directly affect them. But if they lose their democracy, all of these rights, the freedom of speech, the freedom to pray the way you want, the freedom to protest and not go to jail, not be sent out of the country with no due process, all these things will be taken away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reiners\u2019 son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Nick Reiner has struggled with addiction, and been in and out of rehab. But Trump seems to be saying that if Nick is indeed the perpetrator, he acted for pro-Trump political reasons \u2014 which obviously is highly unlikely and, well, just a weird and unhinged thing to claim. <\/p>\n

But also, deeply hypocritical. <\/p>\n

It was only a few months ago, in September, that Charlie Kirk was killed and Trump and his MAGA regime went nuts over anyone who dared whisper a critical word about Kirk. Trump called it \u201csick\u201d and \u201cderanged\u201d that anyone could celebrate Kirk\u2019s death, and blamed the \u201cradical left\u201d for violence-inciting rhetoric. <\/p>\n

Vice President JD Vance, channeling his inner Scarlett O\u2019Hara<\/a>, vowed \u201cwith God as my witness<\/a>,\u201d he would use the full power of the state to crack down on political \u201cnetworks\u201d deemed terrorist. In reality, he\u2019s largely just using the state to target people who oppose Trump out loud. <\/p>\n

And just in case you thought maybe, maybe our president somehow really does have the good of all Americans at heart, recall that in speaking of Kirk, Trump said that he had one point of disagreement. Kirk, he claimed, forgave his enemies. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I disagreed with Charlie,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI hate my opponent and I don\u2019t want the best for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a malevolence so deep in Trump\u2019s remarks about Reiner that even Marjorie Taylor Greene objected. She was once Trump\u2019s staunchest supporter before he called her a traitor, empowering his goon squad to terrorize her with death threats. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies,\u201d Greene wrote on social media<\/a>. \u201cMany families deal with a family member with drug addiction and mental health issues. It\u2019s incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Trump has made cruelty the point. His need to dehumanize everyone who opposes him, including Reiner and even Greene, is exactly what Reiner was warning us about. <\/p>\n

Because when you allow people to be dehumanized, you stop caring about them \u2014 and Reiner was not about to let us stop caring. <\/p>\n

He saw the world with an artist\u2019s eye and a warrior\u2019s heart, a mighty combination reflected in his films. He challenged us to believe in true love<\/a>, to set aside our cynicism<\/a>, to be both silly<\/a> and brave<\/a>, knowing both were crucial to a successful life. <\/p>\n

This clarity from a man who commanded not just our attention and our respect, but our hearts, is what drove Trump crazy \u2014 and what made Reiner such a powerful threat to him. Republican or Democrat, his movies reminded us of what we hold in common. <\/p>\n

But it might be Michael Douglas\u2019 speech in 1995\u2019s \u201cThe American President\u201d<\/a> that is most relevant in this moment. Douglas\u2019 character, President Andrew Shepherd, says that \u201cAmerica is advanced citizenship. You\u2019ve got to want it bad, because it\u2019s going to put up a fight.\u201d <\/p>\n

Shepard\u2019s rival, a man pursuing power over purpose, \u201cis interested in two things and two things only \u2014 making you afraid of \u2018it\u2019 and telling you who\u2019s to blame for \u2018it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Sound familiar?<\/p>\n

That our president felt the need to trash Reiner before his body is even buried would be a badge of honor to Reiner, an acknowledgment that Reiner\u2019s warnings carried weight, and that Reiner was a messenger to be reckoned with. <\/p>\n

Reiner knew what advanced citizenship meant, and he wanted badly for democracy to survive. <\/p>\n

If Trump\u2019s eulogy sickens you the way it sickens me, then here\u2019s what you can do about it: Vote in November in Reiner\u2019s memory. <\/p>\n

Your ballot is the rebuke Trump fears most. <\/p>\n

And your vote is the most powerful way to honor a man who dedicated his life to reminding us that bravery is having the audacity to care. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hours after Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were found dead in their home in what is shaping…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":449777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[206742,1582,276,22196,206743,4512,15916,2961,2252,224,5337,2089,46257,206148,3546,38429,5207,118515,206741,277],"class_list":{"0":"post-449776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-american-democracy","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-freedom","12":"tag-full-power","13":"tag-heart","14":"tag-kirk","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-life","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-man","20":"tag-michele","21":"tag-nick-reiner","22":"tag-people","23":"tag-politic","24":"tag-president","25":"tag-rob-reiner","26":"tag-sad-thing","27":"tag-trump"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115726426084023575","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}