Church leaders are calling out President Donald Trump over his comments following news of the brutal murder of legendary film director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.
The couple was 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 murder 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,” Trump wrote.
The president goes 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 of President Donald J. Trump.”
His post is not sitting well with Christian leaders. On X, Evangelical Leader Russell Moore condemned his comments.
“How this vile, disgusting, and immoral behavior has become normalized 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 commented on X, “Is there even one cell of humanity and kindness in the president?”
His supporters and members of his own party are also blasting 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 VP, 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-R.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 how Trump’s comments were vastly different over conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death compared to his response to the Reiners. Before his death, Reiner even condemned violence regardless of political beliefs and advocated for forgiveness when Kirk was killed at a college event in Utah, The Independent reports.