Challenged on his statement about Rob Reiner, Trump explained, "Well, I wasn't a fan of his at all.... I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way, shape, or form."

Let’s be clear about something.

Trump wrote this morning that what happened to Rob Reiner and his wife Michele was a very sad thing and may they rest in peace.

He didn’t celebrate his death.

He did say how he felt about the man who hated him with every ounce of his being… pic.twitter.com/wdSuwjWDQr

— RealAF Patriot (@RealAF_Patriot) December 15, 2025

The full quote: "Well, I wasn't a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. He said — he knew it was false, in fact it’s the exact opposite — that I was a friend of Russia, controlled by Russia. The Russia hoax — he was one of the people behind it. I think he hurt himself, career-wise. He became like a deranged person. Trump derangement syndrome. 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."

Compare that to his earlier statement, and you'll see that a big difference is the omission of a reverent acknowledgment of the profundity of death. The original statement begins and ends with what we would expect from a decent and conventional reaction: "A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood.... May Rob and Michele rest in peace!" It's the stuff in the middle that was the problem. Notice the multiple elements to this filling. I'll color code them:

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 was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, 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.

The red is the most disturbing part because it suggests, not all that subtly, that the father created the anger and irrationality that overtook the mind of the son. The green expresses the conclusion that Rob Reiner himself suffered from serious mental illness — psychosis. Brown stands out as a big compliment to Reiner, though it is diminished by "once." Reiner was not, according to Trump, a gifted star when he died. He was a man who had descended into madness and infected his son, his murderer, with that madness. The purple, of course, is Trump making it all about himself. 

Trump's newer statement begins and ends with Trump's expression of his personal feeling toward Reiner: "Well, I wasn't a fan of his at all.... 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."

In between those mirroring remarks, you get another mixed filling. Let me use the same colors:

He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. He said — he knew it was false, in fact it’s the exact opposite — that I was a friend of Russia, controlled by Russia. The Russia hoax — he was one of the people behind it. I think he hurt himself, career-wise. He became like a deranged person. Trump derangement syndrome. 

The red is gone. There's no longer any nudge to think that the son was driven mad by his insane father. The brown is gone. And the purple part has acquired detail. Instead of a completely abstract assertion that Trump made Reiner crazy, we're getting into the details of what Reiner did. He participated in the Russia hoax, and he knew what he was doing. So, at least back in 2016, Reiner wasn't crazy (in Trump's view). He knew what he was doing. Trump had reason to hate Reiner, and, showing some respect in the face of murder, Trump uses understatement: "I wasn't a fan."

So Trump stood by his original statement, but he also advanced his game. He wants, I would say, to put a frame of madness around this murder. It fits his larger rhetoric around liberals: These people are sick. How many times has he said that? And he wants to capture the energy around this lurid murder and cause other speakers to augment and amplify his message — even if they also call him a monster. He wants to see endless tweets showing Reiner saying awful things, marshaling the evidence — and forcing Trump haters to repeat these things in an effort to explain them.

Glancing at X, I see things like this:

Here is Rob Reiner conspiring w. John Brennan and Jim Clapper to overthrow the democratically-elected President Trump as part of the Russiagate Conspiracy.

What was Reiner's connection to the CIA?

Who financed this op? pic.twitter.com/rHCeXwuXkJ

— Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) December 16, 2025

Multiply that by thousands and then tell me if we'll ever get back to the subject of the force of the traditional rule, Don't speak ill of the dead. Trump didn't follow a traditional rule. He doesn't care.

Or what about the topic, Trump is talking like the people who reacted to the Charlie Kirk murder by saying they didn't like Charlie Kirk? Trump doesn't care.

Those were 2 pretty important issues yesterday, but I think they are fading. They are like the many calls for civility that come and go in public discourse — always put aside when there are more exciting, forceful arguments to be made. I promoted the traditional rule yesterday. I like it. But I like to keep it neutral (or at least moderate) around here, and most of the noisy speakers out there are partisan and only call for civility when it works for their own side.

Yesterday's comments section contained a few prompts to give this discussion my "civility bullshit" tag. I didn't want to do it, because I thought the traditional "Don't speak ill of the dead" rule stood apart from calls for civility. But I'll add that tag to today's post. The topic of "civility bullshit" is put in issue if only by my talking about it. Remember, it stands for the proposition that calls for civility are always bullshit, made when they serve partisan interests and ignored when your side benefits from rough, blunt speech.