Did rob reiner get along with trump before 2015
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Executive summary
Rob Reiner was a long-time Democratic activist and public critic of conservative politics, and contemporary reporting does not document a friendly relationship with Donald Trump prior to 2015; available sources show Reiner endorsed Democratic candidates in 2008 and 2015 and later became an outspoken critic of Trump once his national profile rose, but they do not provide evidence of personal warmth or collaboration between Reiner and Trump before 2015 [1] [2]. Reporting since 2025 focuses on Reiner’s vocal opposition to Trump and Trump’s caustic public responses after Reiner’s death, underscoring political antagonism rather than a prior friendship [3] [4].
1. Political orientation and endorsements establish context
Rob Reiner’s public record shows sustained Democratic activism: he supported Howard Dean in 2004 and endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2008 and again in 2015, positioning him in the liberal mainstream long before Trump’s presidential rise [1]. Those documented endorsements and Reiner’s advocacy on social issues explain why news coverage treats him as a political opponent of Trump rather than a fellow traveler, and provide a reason why a warm personal relationship with a conservative businessman-politician would be surprising in the absence of documentary evidence [1].
2. Public criticism of Trump surfaced after Trump became a national political figure
The sources show Reiner emerged as an outspoken critic of Trump especially after Trump’s 2016 campaign and presidency, with Reiner warning publicly that Trump’s influence posed a threat to democracy and calling him “mentally unfit” in reporting beginning in 2017 and later years [1] [5]. Contemporary accounts of Reiner’s statements and activism are framed as responses to Trump’s political prominence rather than as the continuation of a prior personal feud dating back before 2015, suggesting the antagonism was political and escalatory as Trump’s profile grew [1] [5].
3. Lack of documentary evidence for a pre-2015 friendship
Extensive reporting around Reiner’s life and his recent death catalogs his activism and later disputes with Trump, but none of the sourced coverage documents a friendly personal or professional relationship between Reiner and Trump prior to 2015; available pieces record Reiner’s Democratic endorsements and later public criticisms, and they record Trump’s later disparaging comments about Reiner, not prior cordial interactions [1] [3] [4]. That absence in multiple outlets is evidence for a lack of recorded camaraderie, but it is not definitive proof that the two never had a civil personal encounter — the sources simply do not report any such relationship [1] [3].
4. How later coverage colors the retrospective question
When Reiner’s death became national news in 2025, the media emphasized his status as a prominent liberal critic of Trump and documented Trump’s inflammatory public responses; outlets from The New York Times to BBC and Reuters-focused summaries framed the relationship as adversarial in recent years, reinforcing the narrative of opposition rather than prior friendship [3] [6] [2]. That post-2015 coverage shapes public perception, but those articles do not assert nor cite archival evidence of a warm pre-2015 relationship to the contrary [3] [2].
5. Bottom line and limits of the record
Based on the reporting supplied, there is no documented evidence that Rob Reiner “got along” with Donald Trump before 2015; the record instead shows Reiner’s long Democratic activism and his vociferous criticism of Trump once Trump became a political figure, while Trump’s public comments about Reiner later in 2025 confirm an adversarial dynamic [1] [5] [3]. This conclusion is limited by the scope of the available sources — they do not comprehensively catalog every private interaction between the two men, so the absence of documented friendship in the press should be read as absence of evidence in news reporting rather than absolute proof of no private cordiality [1] [3].