NEED TO KNOW
Michele Reiner, the wife of Rob Reiner, photographed Donald Trump for the cover of his 1987 book, Trump: The Art of the Deal
Rob reflected in 2017 on what Michele had told him about the photoshoot, during which he said Trump allegedly demanded hairspray to protect his hair from the wind
After Rob and Michele were found dead in their Brentwood, Calif., home on Dec. 14, the president suggested that Rob died because he had “Trump Derangement Syndrome”
Rob Reiner‘s wife, Michele Singer Reiner, photographed Donald Trump years before the then-real estate magnate launched his first bid for the White House.
Michele, 68, died on Sunday, Dec. 14, alongside Rob, 78. Their son Nick Reiner has been arrested and charged with murder in connection to their deaths.
Michele worked as a photographer and took the famed photo of Trump, 79, that was used on the original cover of his 1987 book, Trump: The Art of the Deal, which he co-wrote with Tony Schwartz.
While speaking on Politico’s Off Message podcast in 2017, Rob was asked about his thoughts on Trump’s ability as a performer, leading him to mention the decades-old photoshoot.
“I mean, he has a persona, and he has a charisma,” Rob told Politico’s Isaac Dovere at the time.
“I’ll give you a story. My wife, Michele, who is a professional photographer, she took the photo that’s on the cover of the book The Art of the Deal,” Rob continued. “And at one point, they were up on this high-rise that he was constructing, and they were going to take the pictures overlooking Central Park. And the wind was blowing, and he said, ‘I got to get this hairspray,’ you know, ‘I need this special hairspray.’ “
Rob added, “He was always larger than life, and he was always attractive in that, you know, charismatic celebrity way,” before suggesting that charismatic nature helped boost Trump’s popularity at the polls.
Still, the director said Trump was “not for every audience.”
“Trump: The Art of the Deal,” photographed by Michele Singer
While speaking to The Guardian in 2018, Rob — then a prominent Democratic donor and progressive activist — joked of his wife’s role in the publication of Trump’s star-making book, saying, “She has a lot to atone for.”
Michele was a photographer before launching a career in filmmaking and production alongside her husband, with whom she also worked on political advocacy. She recently produced Rob’s film Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.
Rob was a vocal critic of the president, and after Trump was elected in 2017, he joined the Committee to Investigate Russia, a nonprofit group focused on potential Russian interference in American elections.
Upon Trump’s return to the White House, Rob continued to speak out against the president, including at an event hosted by Chicago’s WBEZ in September. The Hollywood director said at the time that the country had reached “a very, very scary place,” but encouraged everyone to “keep speaking out,” per Deadline.
Two months prior to his death, Rob said in a fiery interview with MS Now that the American political climate under Trump felt “beyond McCarthy era-esque.”
“Make no mistake: We have a year before this country becomes a full-on autocracy and democracy completely leaves us,” Rob said, while claiming the Trump administration was amassing the “two big things an autocrat needs”: “control of the media” and “military control of the streets.”
“We’re in it right now, and we’re sliding downhill in a very, very fast way, and we have to find a way to stop it,” Rob said.
After news of Rob and Michele’s deaths broke, Trump posted on Truth Social, “A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. 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 through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”
He continued, “He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump,” the president continued, “with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”
His insensitive post was condemned by both Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and The View’s Whoopi Goldberg, among others.
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Later on Monday, Trump doubled down on his criticism of Rob when asked about the backlash to his Truth Social post, saying, “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.”
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