What were Rob Reiner's exact words about the alleged Trump shooting and where were they published?
This fact-check may be outdated. Consider refreshing it to get the most current information.
Executive summary
Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Rob Reiner “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,” and repeated similar language calling Reiner “a deranged person” in comments to reporters; the original post and subsequent remarks were reported across major outlets including The New York Times, Variety and CNBC [1] [2] [3].
1. What Trump actually wrote and where it appeared
Multiple outlets quote the same Truth Social post in which Mr. Trump wrote that Reiner “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” [2] [4]. News organisations explicitly attribute that language to a Truth Social post by the president [2] [1].
2. How Trump amplified the message in public comments
After the post, the president repeated and expanded the criticisms to reporters, calling Reiner “a deranged person” and saying he “was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way, shape or form,” remarks captured in contemporaneous reporting of his remarks to the press [5] [6]. CNBC and WABE report Trump “doubled down” in a White House exchange, restating the deranged/Trump-derangement terminology [3] [5].
3. Consistency of the wording across outlets
The quoted Truth Social wording appears consistently in coverage from Variety, Deadline, The New York Times, Forbes, Axios and others; each outlet reproduces the same key phrase about Reiner’s death being “reportedly due to the anger he caused others” and naming “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME” [2] [7] [1] [4] [8]. This uniformity indicates the line was taken from a single social-media post rather than paraphrase across different reports [2] [1].
4. What the reporting says about factual linkage and motive
Authorities had arrested the Reiners’ 32‑year‑old son and were investigating the deaths as a homicide; multiple outlets note investigators had not linked the couple’s political views to the killing and that there was “no indication” their political beliefs were related to the deaths, a point stressed by The New York Times and the AP reporting carried by other outlets [1] [9]. News reports therefore present Trump’s causal attribution as an assertion not substantiated by investigators at the time of reporting [1] [9].
5. Political reaction and framing in the coverage
Reporting highlights bipartisan backlash: Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike — including Rep. Thomas Massie and centrist Republicans cited by Axios and The Guardian — publicly condemned the president’s post as inappropriate and “disgusting,” undercutting any perception that his remarks were supported across his party [8] [10]. Outlets frame the post as a political attack issued in the immediate aftermath of a violent killing [10] [8].
6. Alternative perspectives and editorial tone in reporting
Some coverage emphasizes outrage and moral condemnation (Deadline, Variety, The Guardian), while other pieces stress the factual timeline and investigative status (AP-syndicated stories, The New York Times). Forbes and Axios add analysis of how the phrase “Trump Derangement Syndrome” functions as a partisan insult; Variety and Deadline focus on the insensitivity of blaming a victim in this context [4] [8] [2] [7].
7. Limitations and what available sources do not mention
Available sources do not mention any independent evidence linking Reiner’s political criticism of Trump to the cause of his and his wife’s deaths; reporting instead records that police were investigating and that the couple’s son was arrested [1] [9]. Available sources do not provide the full, unedited Truth Social post beyond the quoted sentence reproduced across outlets, so if there were surrounding lines or edits, they are not reported here [2] [1].
8. Bottom line for readers
The exact language blaming “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and describing Reiner as “tortured and struggling” was published by Mr. Trump on Truth Social and was duplicated in subsequent on‑the‑record comments to reporters; major news outlets quote the same wording and uniformly report investigators had not tied the deaths to politics at the time [2] [3] [1]. Readers should treat the president’s causal claim as an allegation reported by him, not as a conclusion of law enforcement or corroborated evidence in the news accounts [1] [9].