The comments came as police announced that Reiner’s son, Nick, had been arrested on suspicion of murder – a development that intensified the backlash.
“I’d expect to hear something like this from a drunk guy at a bar, not the president of the United States,” Nebraska Republican Don Bacon, who retires from the House of Representatives next year, told CNN.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, once one of Trump’s fiercest allies in Congress, scolded Trump over his response to a “family tragedy” that was “not about politics or political enemies”.
“Many families deal with a family member with drug addiction and mental health issues. It’s incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder,” she posted on X.
‘Inappropriate and disrespectful’
Thomas Massie, another Trump critic on the Republican side of the House of Representatives, called the President’s comments “inappropriate and disrespectful” while New York moderate Mike Lawler called the remarks “wrong”.
Trump claimed the Reiners had died “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.
“He 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,” the Republican leader wrote.
Trump has a long record of incendiary social media posts that have outraged Democrats, but open condemnation from within Republican ranks was once almost unthinkable.
Miles Taylor, a former Trump administration homeland security official who became a prominent internal critic after anonymously publishing a 2019 tell-all book, accused Trump of “mocking the dead” and branded him a “sick creep”.
“His attacks on [Republican senator] John McCain after the veteran’s death pushed me to speak out from within his administration. [The] taunting of Rob Reiner’s murder makes me even more determined to defy Trump.”
Democrats also responded with fury. David Axelrod, the former chief strategist to President Barack Obama, described Trump’s post as “perverse”.
“The absence of empathy & grace for the Reiner family in their moment of profound loss and grief is sad and revealing. For @POTUS, his grievances trumps their grief.”
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said Trump had “lost it”.
“Now saying Rob and Michele Reiner caused their own murder because they didn’t support him. So sick,” he wrote.
-Agence France-Presse
