One of the downsides of serving in President Donald Trump’s movement is that the moral high ground is extremely unsteady terrain.
Should you choose to stake it out on a given issue, it’s quite possible that Trump will later do something to completely undermine you.
But rarely has that been the case like it was Monday, after the apparent homicide deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife, producer Michele Singer Reiner.
Trump administration officials and the MAGA movement had spent months crying foul about the mostly random people who they said celebrated and politicized Charlie Kirk’s September assassination, with some Republican elected officials even calling for those people to lose their jobs. Trump and some of his allies also used it as the basis of their dubious claims that the political left is more violent than the political right, and even to legitimize a government crackdown on leftist organizations.
But on Monday, the roles were suddenly reversed. And it was more than a random person dancing on the grave of a political foe; it was Trump himself.
Trump began a post on Truth Social by calling the deaths of Reiner and his wife “a very sad thing” and wished that they “rest in peace.”
But the president spent most of the post deriding Reiner for his left-leaning, anti-Trump politics and even suggesting Reiner had brought his demise upon himself.
It was a remarkably callous post, even by Trump’s standards.
He said Reiner’s death was “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.”
(The Reiners’ son is being held on suspicion of murder following their deaths, according to Los Angeles police, but there have been no details about possible motives.)
“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights” recently, Trump added of Rob Reiner.
The president might argue that calling their deaths “very sad” means he wasn’t celebrating them. But his point was exceedingly clear — and ugly.
It’s also very difficult to square with how the GOP talked about social media posts in the wake of Kirk’s death, emphasizing the importance of civility.
Many of their comments at the time sought to call out a similar tone Trump has now taken about Reiner.
“So, when you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out and, hell, call their employer,” Vice President JD Vance said back in September. “We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility.”
Vance added at another point: “If we want to stop political violence like what happened to Charlie Kirk, we have to be honest about the people who are celebrating it and the people who are financing it.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said that leftists “actually celebrating” Kirk’s murder “tells you everything you need to know about that side.”
The Louisiana Republican agreed that it was fair game for employers to fire people for “celebrating the heinous murder of an innocent person.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved to strip visas of people for the same offense, saying, “Why would we want to bring people into our country that are going to engage in negative and destructive behavior?”
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the reactions to Kirk’s assassination proved the left had a worse political violence problem than the right. (In fact, the political right has perpetrated much more violence in recent decades.)
“And understand, yes, there is some violence on both sides,” Cruz said at the time. “But it is the left that overwhelmingly celebrates this.”
(Within minutes of Trump’s post Monday morning, Cruz posted a much more high-minded reaction to the deaths of the Reiners. Cruz months ago also took a stand against the Trump administration targeting ABC host Jimmy Kimmel for a joke about Kirk’s assassination, saying it wasn’t an appropriate role for the government.)
And Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri at a hearing decried people who were “all but saying Charlie’s assassination was justified because of what he thought, because of what he said.”
Now Trump is doing something very similar — connecting Reiner’s death to what he thought and said that Trump didn’t like.
Indeed, even in the hours before Trump’s Truth Social post, some influencers on the right were suggesting Reiner’s death showed how their side was different than the left.
“You won’t see people on the right celebrating the horrific murder of Rob Reiner and his wife,” Jack Posobiec posted on X late Sunday night. “Compare to the Left’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s murder.”
Podcaster Bret Weinstein added: “Notice that the American right is NOT celebrating Rob Reiner’s murder.” Megyn Kelly reposted it.
Given the principles the right staked out after Kirk’s killing, it’ll be interesting to see if that standard is applied to Trump – or if his allies try to suggest his post is somehow different.
Republicans who have distanced themselves from Trump’s politics of late were among the early voices criticizing his comments.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia posted Trump’s reaction and said, “This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies.”
“I’d expect to hear something like this from a drunk guy at a bar, not the President of the United States,” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Rep. Mike Lawler of New York called Trump’s statement “wrong.”
“The Right uniformly condemned political and celebratory responses to Charlie Kirk’s death,” former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis posted. “This is a horrible example from Trump (and surprising considering the two attempts on his own life) and should be condemned by everyone with any decency.”
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky called Trump’s post “inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered.”
“I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid?” Massie added. “I challenge anyone to defend it.”
Despite those criticisms, Trump doubled down later Monday at an event in the Oval Office.
“He became like a deranged person – ‘Trump derangement syndrome,’” the president said. “So, I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country.”
This is hardly the first time Trump has undercut the GOP’s claims to political civility in the face of tragedy. Long before the GOP tried to leverage leftists politicizing Kirk’s death, Trump had repeatedly made light of political violence against his foes (see: Paul Pelosi) and frequently used violent rhetoric.
But the president reupping this kind of language now at least crystallizes the choice for the GOP.
And the choice is as it ever was: between Trump and the moral high ground.
This story has been updated with additional comments from President Donald Trump.