Church leaders are criticising President Donald Trump over his comments following news of the deaths of legendary film director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.
The couple were found dead in their home on Sunday. Their son, Nick Reiner, was arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents.
Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, seemingly blaming the murders on Reiner’s anti-Trump politics.
“Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others,” he wrote.
The president went on to say that Reiner suffered from an “incurable affliction with a mind-crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession with President Donald J. Trump.”
The post has not been well received by Christian leaders. On X, evangelical leader Russell Moore condemned the comments.
“How this vile, disgusting, and immoral behaviour has become normalised in the United States is something our descendants will study in school, to the shame of our generation,” Moore wrote.
Saddleback Church co-founder Kay Warren also commented on X, asking, “Is there even one cell of humanity and kindness in the president?”
Supporters and members of Trump’s own party have also criticised the president over the Truth Social post.
“Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) wrote on X. “I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the vice-president, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid? I challenge anyone to defend it.”
“This statement is wrong. Regardless of one’s political views, no one should be subjected to violence, let alone at the hands of their own son,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) also wrote on X. “It’s a horrible tragedy that should engender sympathy and compassion from everyone in our country, period.”
Others have pointed out that Trump’s comments contrast sharply with his response to the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Before his death, Reiner had condemned violence regardless of political beliefs and advocated forgiveness following Kirk’s killing at a college event in Utah, The Independent reports.