A fierce debate erupted on Fox News following former President Donald Trump's controversial remarks about the murder of Hollywood director Rob Reiner. The 78-year-old filmmaker and his 70-year-old wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were discovered stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home on Sunday.
Trump's Provocative Social Media Post
The backlash began on Monday when Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. He claimed Reiner suffered from a 'mind crippling disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome' and labelled the late director 'very bad for our country.' The comments came just a day after the brutal killing, for which the couple's 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested and is being held without bail.
The controversy became the central topic on the network's show 'The Five,' where hosts Greg Gutfeld and Harold Ford Jr. offered starkly opposing views. Gutfeld attempted to defend Trump's approach, framing it as a matter of separating the former president's words from his actions.
'I think the thing is, you don't have to like the things that he says all the time,' Gutfeld argued. 'It is why, in my filter, Trump is always 'words' versus 'deeds.'... I can hate what he says. But I can also think in his brain, he is going, 'This guy compared me to Hitler. He put a target on my back. I don't like him.''
A Heated On-Air Exchange
Gutfeld conceded that a more conventional response would have been to express sorrow, stating, 'If it were me, I would go, like, 'I'm sorry he's dead.'' However, he defended Trump's inability to 'let that go' due to past criticisms from Reiner, a lifelong liberal activist.
Harold Ford Jr., the former Democratic congressman, forcefully pushed back. He insisted that conservatives must acknowledge Trump's response was fundamentally inappropriate. 'If Joe Biden had said this anybody, I would've attacked this and said he's completely wrong,' Ford stated. 'It's wrong, and we should be able to call out what's right from wrong, and that's wrong what he did.'
The director, an Emmy-winning star of All in the Family who later directed classics like When Harry Met Sally... and The Princess Bride, was a frequent critic of Trump. The term 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' (TDS) is often used by conservatives to describe what they see as irrational hatred of the former president.
Family Tragedy and Trump's Unrelenting Stance
Reiner and his wife Michele, a photographer and LGBTQ+ rights advocate, had been married for 36 years. Their son Nick, arrested in connection with the deaths, had a publicly documented history of addiction. The father-son relationship was explored in the 2016 film Being Charlie, which they co-wrote together.
Despite widespread condemnation from Hollywood figures and some Republicans, who labelled Trump's statement 'disgusting and vile,' the former president doubled down. When questioned by a reporter, he said, 'I wasn't a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person... I thought he was very bad for our country.' He also accused Reiner of promoting the 'Russia hoax.'
In his initial social media post, Trump wrote that Reiner, a 'once very talented movie director and comedy star,' had passed away 'reportedly due to the anger he caused others' through his affliction with TDS. The on-air clash on Fox News highlights the deep divisions that persist in US media regarding the boundaries of political discourse, even in the face of personal tragedy.
