President Donald Trump’s decision to blame “Trump Derangement Syndrome” for the grisly murders of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, is further proof that the president is a “sociopath,” according to political analyst David Rothkopf.
“It’s disgusting, it’s nauseating, and it’s completely consistent with Trump,” Rothkopf said on The Daily Beast Podcast on Monday.
One day after Reiner, 78, and his wife, 68, were found murdered at their Los Angeles home on Sunday, Trump attacked the filmmaker in a Truth Social post, portraying him as a “struggling” man with “obvious paranoia” who had brought his death upon himself due to his “raging obsession” with the president.
“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,” Trump wrote.
“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 president continued, adding, “May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”
The suspect in the killings is the Reiners’ 32-year-old son, Nick, who was arrested Monday morning, charged with the crimes, and is being held on $4 million bail.
Rothkopf, who said he met Reiner several times through Democratic Party–affiliated events, described the Hollywood star and left-wing activist as a “warm, caring guy committed to trying to make the country a better place.”
“Donald Trump is a sociopath,” Rothkopf added. “It stands in particularly stark contrast to the fact that Rob Reiner was a mensch.”
Rothkopf said Trump’s response to the Reiner killings fits a broader pattern of callousness, pointing to the president’s remarks Sunday about a mass shooting at Brown University a day earlier that left two people dead and at least nine injured.
“And Brown University, great school. Great, really, one of the greatest schools anywhere in the world. Things can happen,” Trump said during remarks outside the White House.
“Have you ever seen Donald Trump express a human emotion, ever a normal emotion of joy, of happiness for somebody else, of grief about something else, of compassion for the American people?” Rothkopf asked. “He doesn’t do it because he’s broken.”
While Trump rarely displays empathy for others, Rothkopf noted, he shows no shortage of affection for himself. The president has floated renaming the Kennedy Center after himself, and earlier this month, “Donald J. Trump” was added to the signage at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Trump has also pushed for the Washington Commanders to name their planned stadium after him, according to an ESPN report last month.
Rothkopf contrasted Trump’s behavior with Reiner’s vision of presidential leadership, pointing to Reiner’s 1995 film The American President, which centers on a well-meaning, deeply empathetic leader navigating love and responsibility from the Oval Office.
“The whole point was that the president was human, the president could feel love, the president would do the right thing, even when it was personally awkward for him,” Rothkopf said.
“The president that Michael Douglas played… was the antithesis of Donald Trump. Just like Rob Reiner is the antithesis of Donald Trump,” he added.
Reiner rose to fame as a sitcom actor before moving behind the camera to direct such classic films as This is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, and When Harry Met Sally. He and his wife were found dead in their home in Los Angeles’ upscale Brentwood neighborhood on Sunday afternoon, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Hours before authorities say the killings occurred, Reiner and his wife reportedly got into a “very loud argument” with their son at Conan O’Brien’s annual Christmas party, ultimately leaving the event early.
A longtime neighbor told the New York Post that this “is not the first time their son has been violent.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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