President Trump is being condemned by both right wing and centrist Republican members of Congress for posting that director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were killed due to "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
Why it matters: It's a rare break between the president and his party in Congress, some members of which have grown more willing to call out his excesses in recent months.
- Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the Reiners died "reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction ... known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME."
- Trump referred to Reiner, a vocal critic of his, as a "tortured and struggling, but once very talented" director who "was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump."
- Police have arrested the Reiners' son, Nick, in connection with his killing.
What they're saying: "It is not Presidential," said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retiring swing-district moderate who has been one of Trump's most persistent GOP critics in Congress, said in a statement to Axios.
- "The couple were stabbed to death. Most Americans want more and better from our President," he added.
- Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), another swing district centrist, said in a post on X: "This statement is wrong. Regardless of one's political views, no one should be subjected to violence, let alone at the hands of their own son."
- "It's a horrible tragedy that should engender sympathy and compassion from everyone in our country, period," he said.
- "We should be lifting the family up in prayer, not making this about politics," Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) wrote on X.
The intrigue: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a right-wing Trump ally-turned-critic, posted on X, "This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies."
- At virtually the same time, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a conservative libertarian, posted on X that Trump's comments are "inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered."
- He added: "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."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
