Did Rob Reiner say he wished the shooter did not miss trump in butler pa?
This fact-check may be outdated. Consider refreshing it to get the most current information.
Executive summary
Available reporting shows no source saying Rob Reiner ever said he “wished the shooter did not miss Trump in Butler, PA.” Coverage instead centers on President Trump’s inflammatory post after Reiner’s death and backlash to it; major outlets report Trump calling Reiner “deranged” and blaming “Trump Derangement Syndrome” for the killing [1] [2]. Sources do note elsewhere that pro‑Trump online users and some MAGA influencers previously joked about attempts on the president’s life — those tweets are cited in reporting but are not attributed to Reiner [3].
1. What the record actually contains: Trump’s post and the fallout
News outlets uniformly report that President Trump posted a message after Rob Reiner and his wife were killed that attacked Reiner, saying he had “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and that he “was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession” with the president; that remark drew bipartisan condemnation and rare Republican pushback [1] [2] [4]. Coverage from The Guardian, NYT, AP, PBS and others documents the reaction from lawmakers, celebrities and even some of Trump’s supporters [5] [1] [2] [6].
2. The claim you asked about — who said what about the Butler, Pa., shooting
Available sources do not report Rob Reiner saying he wished the shooter had better aim or had not missed Trump in Butler, Pa.; in fact, the contemporary news cycle quoted above focuses on Trump’s own comments about Reiner’s death and unrelated online posts by various MAGA users that joked about violence toward Trump [3]. If you are referencing remarks about the Butler, Pa., shooting — reporting shows others online made callous comments about that incident, but those posts are attributed to pro‑Trump influencers or commenters, not to Rob Reiner [3].
3. Where confusion likely arises: mixing actors and online commentary
Reporting highlights that social media has repeatedly circulated flippant or violent‑adjacent comments about political figures; The Daily Caller and other outlets cite tweets from figures like George Santos and unnamed MAGA influencers who referenced prior attempts on Trump’s life and joked about “better aim,” which is the sort of language that can be misattributed in later summaries [3]. Journalists warned that online outrage and rapid resharing create fertile ground for misattribution; the stories collected here show that the controversial lines most widely reported were written by Trump about Reiner, not the reverse [3] [7].
4. Competing perspectives in the coverage
Mainstream outlets frame Trump’s comments as callous and widely condemned; The Guardian and NYT emphasize bipartisan criticism and horror at attacking a murder victim [5] [1]. Conservative outlets and commentators quoted by Axios, Townhall and the Daily Caller offered a counter‑argument that Reiner had long targeted Trump and that the president’s anger was understandable — some commentators defended or minimized Trump’s tone [8] [9] [3]. The reporting thus presents two competing frames: moral outrage at commenting on a homicide, and partisan justification rooted in decades of mutual animus [5] [8].
5. What the sources do not say and caution about absent evidence
Available sources do not show Rob Reiner making any statement that advocated violence against Trump or praising a shooter’s aim; they also do not connect Reiner to social‑media posts that mocked previous assassination attempts — those posts, as reported, come from other online actors [3]. If you have seen a specific quotation attributed to Reiner, that claim is not documented in the reporting provided here and should be treated as unverified or misattributed until a primary source is shown.
6. Why attribution matters: how misattribution spreads
The articles collected illustrate how political violence, social media, and partisan rancor create a chain‑reaction of claims and counterclaims; a flippant retweet or a partisan blog post can quickly become treated as fact when reshared without sourcing [3]. Responsible reporting separates who said what; the records cited here consistently attribute the inflammatory post to President Trump and the online “better aim” style jokes to pro‑Trump influencers, not to Reiner [1] [3].
If you want, I can search broader archives for the specific Butler, Pa., incident language you mentioned to find any primary tweet, video or attribution that might have caused the confusion — current reporting in these sources does not support the claim that Rob Reiner made the statement you described [3].