Republican Rep. Massie slams Trump's response to Hollywood director Rob Reiner's killing

Austin Horn, Lexington Herald-Leader on Dec 15, 2025

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In a viral social media post, Rep. Thomas Massie criticized President Donald Trump’s response to the killing of famed director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, over the weekend.

Massie called Trump’s words, which, without evidence, suggested that the Reiners were killed in their Los Angeles home because of their opposition to the president, “inappropriate and disrespectful.”

“Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered. I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid? I challenge anyone to defend it,” Massie wrote on X.

Reiner is best known for ‘80s and ‘90s classics like “This is SpinalTap,” “Stand By Me,” “A Few Good Men,” “The Princess Bride,” and “When Harry Met Sally,” among many others. He was also a prolific actor, appearing in the TV show “All in the Family” and the film “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

In recent decades, Reiner became more involved in progressive politics. Reiner led ballot initiatives in California, campaigned hard for Democrats and was even discussed as a potential candidate himself.

According to local police, Reiner’s 32-year-old son, Nick, was booked for murder and is being held on $4 million bail on suspicion of the double homicide.

Trump offered condolences at the end of a recent post on his Truth Social platform, but spent the majority railing against what he called Reiner’s “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”

“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. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”

Massie’s response to Trump was not the first time the Republican has offered criticism of the president.

The Kentucky congressman spoke out against, and voted in opposition of, Trump’s marquee budget bill. He has criticized the administration’s bombing of a nuclear site in Iran. Most notably, he defied the president in his successful push for a resolution forcing the release of all investigative files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., another Republican who has criticized Trump in recent months, agreed with Massie in her own post. She wrote on X that the Reiners’ murder was “not about politics or political enemies.”

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