WHY THE HATE?

MAGA Actor Fumes at Trump on Fox Over Rob Reiner Slaying

Longtime Trump fan James Woods said criticism of the slain filmmaker is “infuriating and distasteful.”

Actor James Woods, one of Hollywood’s most outspoken Donald Trump supporters, has broken ranks with the president after his incendiary remarks about the killing of Rob Reiner.

In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump drew bipartisan anger after he suggested the 78-year-old film director and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, died “reportedly due to the anger [Rob Reiner] caused others” through an “incurable affliction” he called “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” The director and his wife attacked in their Los Angeles home on Sunday, and police arrested their son, Nick Reiner, 32, on suspicion of murder.

Woods, 78, went on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime on Monday evening and spoke about Reiner as a friend and professional lifeline—while also criticizing the tone of the political pile-on around the tragedy.

“When people say horrible things about Rob right now, I find it, quite frankly, infuriating and distasteful,” Woods said, in a clear jab at the 79-year-old president.

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Woods has spent years boosting Trump, making his rebuke of the president—who has been widely flamed for injecting political score-settling into a homicide investigation and a family’s grief—that much more powerful.

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel told viewers his first reaction to Trump’s post was disbelief: “When I first saw it, I thought it was fake.” Musician Jack White called Trump a “disgusting, vile, egomaniac, loser, child,” adding: “To use someone’s tragic death to promote your own vanity and fascist authoritarian agenda is a corrupt and narcissistic sin.”

Even Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, weighed in. “This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies,” she wrote on X.

Woods agreed with the sentiment and said that, rather than allow politics to divide them, he and Reiner were bonded by patriotism and basic decency. “Because you disagree with people doesn’t mean that you have to hate people,” he said, describing a circle of liberal friends he could argue with and still respect.

Woods also discussed what Reiner meant to him—recounting how the filmmaker cast him in the 1996 movie Ghosts of Mississippi when Woods said his career had cratered. “Rob literally saved my career and really put me back on track,” he said, adding that Reiner “really fought for me when the studio didn’t want me in a movie.”

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Woods, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the film, said the role took him from “basically out of a job” to “getting an Academy Award nomination,” adding, “All I’ve ever said about Rob Reiner is he is somebody I love, respect, and cherish.”

Despite the criticism, Trump has refused to back down. Asked about the controversy in the Oval Office on Monday, he said of Reiner: “Well, I wasn’t a fan of his at all… I thought he was very bad for our country.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

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Tom LatchemLead Global Correspondent

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