OPINION:
On Sunday, a young man struggling with mental illness and drug abuse murdered his famous parents. That happened in Brentwood, California, nearly 2,800 miles from Washington.
For some reason, the president of the United States — struggling to prevent World War III and somehow keep the U.S. economy from imploding any more than it already has — decided it was crucial that he weigh in immediately on the tragedy.
Here’s what the most powerful man in the world (who is, it needs to be said in this context, 79 years old) had to say about the horrific deaths of two innocent human beings:
“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,” President Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump said of Mr. Reiner, “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.” His post concluded, “May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”
That’s what the president decided to say. And you can mark it down in your diary as the day the Make America Great Again movement lost its way for good, the day the sycophantic followers who endlessly tolerate the horrible and disgusting things Mr. Trump does almost daily had finally had enough.
Right-wing commentators such as Robby Starbuck expressed disappointment in the president’s comments.
“What happened last night to Rob Reiner and his wife was a savage butchering of 2 human lives. I don’t care what their politics were or how they felt about Trump, no law-abiding human deserves this. We should pray for and send condolences to his loved ones and NOT make it political,” Mr. Starbuck told his 900,000 followers on X.
Another supporter and loyal Republican, Rep. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma, hit Mr. Trump too. “A father and mother were murdered at the hands of their troubled son. We should be lifting the family up in prayer, not making this about politics,” Ms. Bice wrote on X.
Scrolling up and down the threads on social media found a slew of self-identified MAGA supporters angered by Mr. Trump’s heartless and self-centered take (of course, in this day and age, they all may have been penned by bots in Russia). Still, there was an overwhelming sense that the president had (finally) gone too far — and that’s saying something, given his long string of egregious ad hominem attacks.
The bottom line is this: No one is afraid of Mr. Trump anymore. His inability to reduce grocery store prices — among the top promises that got him elected in 2024, and the one Americans cared most about — has lost him millions of supporters. More than that, many Americans, even Trump supporters, are looking past his waning days to what’s next.
How bad is it? In one recent poll, two groups showed the largest drop in support for the president: those who identify as Republican and those who identify with Mr. Trump’s MAGA movement. Moreover, 64% of Americans overall think the country is on the wrong track, up from 60% at the beginning of the year, the poll found. Mr. Trump has lost the support of those who took a chance on him, and they won’t be coming back.
To make matters worse, Mr. Trump’s top aide, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, said a slew of disparaging things to a Vanity Fair reporter, and despite the White House and Ms. Wiles attempting to blame the media (once again), the frank statements will sting all the way to November, when Mr. Trump’s party will lose control of the House and he will essentially be a lame duck until he leaves office in 2029.
“The Trump era is ending,” former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci wrote on X this week. “When top advisers feel emboldened to speak so candidly, something’s up. And I think the reaction to Rob Reiner, by all accounts a decent person with a troubled child, from both the right and left, is more than a surface crack.”
Indeed, it is. It’s an earthquake shaking the very foundation of MAGA.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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