What phrase did Rob Reiner say about the attempt on Trump's life and in what context?
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Executive summary
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social suggesting Rob Reiner “passed away … 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,” a remark widely reported and condemned across outlets [1] [2]. Trump later repeated criticism in remarks to reporters, calling Reiner “a deranged person” and saying he “was not a fan” [3] [4].
1. What exactly did Rob Reiner get called — and where it appeared
In a Truth Social post on Dec. 15, 2025, President Trump wrote that Rob Reiner was “a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star,” and said Reiner “passed away … 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,” language repeated in multiple accounts of the post [1] [5]. News organizations quoted that wording directly as the core of the president’s attack [2] [6].
2. The context: a family tragedy under investigation
The post came less than a day after Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Brentwood home and while Los Angeles police were investigating the deaths as homicides; their son, Nick Reiner, was arrested on suspicion of murder [6] [2]. Authorities had not released a motive at the time of Trump’s post, and multiple outlets emphasize that the president’s claim tying the killings to Reiner’s politics was unsubstantiated [2] [3].
3. Immediate reactions: bipartisan condemnation and moral outrage
Trump’s post produced swift bipartisan backlash. Lawmakers and celebrities called the comments inappropriate and disrespectful, with some Republicans saying the president’s remarks were beneath the office; Sen. Chris Murphy and others publicly rebuked the politicization of the deaths [5] [7]. Coverage across Reuters, The Washington Post and other outlets catalogued the condemnation and described the post as “mocking” and “perverse” [2] [6] [8].
4. How Trump doubled down in person
When reporters pressed him at the White House, Trump did not retract the post. He told reporters he “was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way shape or form,” and used the third person to call Reiner “a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned,” according to local reporting [3] [4]. Those remarks reinforced coverage that the president stood by his online attack despite an ongoing homicide investigation [6].
5. Competing perspectives in the reporting
Across the sources there are two clear strands: one emphasizes that Trump’s post was an unmoored political attack made during a family tragedy and lacking evidence tying Reiner’s politics to the killings [2] [3]. Another notes that some pro-Trump commentators defended or downplayed the move as an extension of normal political rhetoric, arguing critics are hypocritical about “proper” expressions of grief [4]. News outlets uniformly report the core factual sequence — the post, the arrest of the son, and the official investigation — but differ in framing and emphasis [1] [2] [4].
6. What reporting does not say
Available sources do not mention any official evidence that Rob Reiner’s criticism of Donald Trump motivated the killings; law enforcement had not publicly ascribed a motive when news organizations reported the president’s post [2] [6]. Sources also do not report a presidential retraction or correction after the initial post and the White House remarks cited [3] [4].
7. Why the phrasing matters — and the implicit agenda
Calling a slain public figure’s death a consequence of “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME” reframes a family homicide as political retribution, an implicit narrative that shifts culpability away from any suspect and toward the victim’s politics. Outlets highlighted that implication and the timing amid an active homicide probe [1] [2]. Critics treated the language as both a personal attack and a political signal to supporters that derision of opponents can be celebrated, which explains the swift bipartisan rebukes [7] [5].
8. Takeaway
Reporting consistently records the precise language Trump used on Truth Social and his on-camera reiteration calling Reiner “deranged,” and it documents the arrest of the Reiners’ son and the open homicide investigation [1] [3] [6]. What remains unsupported in the available reporting is any factual link between Reiner’s politics and the cause or motive of the killings; that connection appears to be an inference made only by the president in his posts and comments [2] [3].