Concerns are reportedly mounting within Donald Trump's inner circle about the US President's mental state following a shocking online outburst directed at the late Hollywood director Rob Reiner.
Shock Post Sparks Internal Alarm
According to claims by Trump's biographer, Michael Wolff, senior aides are worried the President is 'teetering' after he published a cruel rant on his Truth Social platform just hours after Reiner and his wife Michele were found dead. The couple were discovered at their Los Angeles home on Sunday, with reports stating their throats had been slit. Their son, Nick Reiner, was later arrested and charged with their murder.
Ignoring the tragic circumstances, Trump used the event to attack the filmmaker, a long-time critic, blaming his death on 'a mind crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome'. In a lengthy post, the President described Reiner as 'tortured and struggling' and claimed the syndrome had 'driven people crazy by his raging obsession' with Trump.
'Is He Teetering? Well...'
Speaking on the 'Inside Trump's Head' podcast, Wolff revealed that one White House staff member reacted to the post by saying: “I don’t know what that was, but it wasn’t good. Everybody knows it’s a thin line he walks. Is he teetering? Well...”
Wolff elaborated on the unspoken anxiety, stating: "This person didn’t complete the sentence. We all become kind of diagnosticians of these old-man presidents. I mean, nobody is going to come out and say, 'He’s losing it.' So we all have to make our own judgments about that." He concluded that in this specific case, the likely judgment from those close to him would be devastating: "Trump is off his f****g rocker."
Backlash and Doubling Down
The President's comments provoked immediate and bipartisan condemnation. Republican Representative Thomas Massie from Kentucky publicly criticised Trump on social media platform X, calling the discourse 'inappropriate and disrespectful' and challenging his GOP colleagues to defend it.
Despite the backlash, Trump doubled down on his comments on Tuesday, insisting that Rob Reiner had been 'very bad for our country.' The President has consistently denied any suggestions of cognitive or physical health issues.
The incident has cast a harsh spotlight on the atmosphere within the West Wing, suggesting deep-seated unease among staff about the President's stability following what many saw as a grotesque and politically motivated attack on a grieving family.
