US President Donald Trump has defended his comments about the late film director Rob Reiner, following public backlash.
The This Is Spinal Tap filmmaker (78) and his wife Michele (68) were found dead in their Los Angeles home on Sunday December 14. The LAPD later said that it was investigating the case as an “apparent homicide”, and outlets including TMZ and People reported that the two had suffered wounds consistent with a knife attack.
Last night (Monday December 15), it was revealed that their 32-year-old son Nick Reiner had been arrested and was in in custody on $4million (£2.9million) bail.
The news of their deaths prompted many tributes from those who have worked with Reiner, including Stephen King and Paul McCartney. Trump, however, took to Truth Social to imply a link between Reiner’s death and his criticism of the Trump Administration.
“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,” the President’s post said.
“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 post has been condemned by a number of names in entertainment, including Jack White, who called Trump a “disgusting, vile, egomaniac loser, child”. Long-time Trump critic Jimmy Kimmel denounced the comments on his show, remarking: “Just when you think he can’t go any lower, he somehow finds a way to do that.”
Frozen star Josh Gad called Trump a “fucking psychopath,” while on talk show The View, Whoopi Goldberg asked that the comments not be read on air. “Don’t read it,” she asked co-host Sunny Hostin. “Just tell them that it’s there”.
Trump addressed the backlash while addressing journalists, reports the BBC. Speaking in the Oval Office, he described Reiner as “very bad for our country”, and a “deranged person” who was partly “behind” previous claims of collusion between Russia and Trump’s team. “I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way, shape or form,” he concluded.
Rob Reiner is remembered by the film community as the director behind a variety of classics from various genres. His directorial debut was the seminal 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, with its long-awaited sequel being his final film when it was released earlier this year.
His other films included the coming-of-age drama Stand by Me (1986), fantasy The Princess Bride (1987), romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally (1989), Stephen King adaptation Misery (1990), and legal drama A Few Good Men (1992), for which he received an Oscar nomination.
Nick Reiner worked with his father on 2015 drama Being Charlie, which was loosely based on his real-life struggles with addiction and homelessness.
Michele Singer-Reiner worked as a photographer, and married Rob in 1989 after meeting on the set for When Harry Met Sally. As well as working on the MysteryDisc video games, she collaborated with her husband on Misery (credited as a special photographer) and Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (as a producer).
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