‘A sick man.’ Gavin Newsom blasts Trump’s reaction to Reiners’ deaths
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a regular White House opponent, blasted President Donald Trump’s reaction to the death of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, calling him a “sick man.”
Reiner, 78, and his producer wife Michele Singer Reiner, 68, died Sunday night at their Los Angeles home. Authorities have charged their son, Nick Reiner, with their murders and held him without bail. Reiner was known for directing comedies like “When Harry Met Sally...,” “This Is Spinal Tap,” and “The Princess Bride.”
Trump tied the deaths of the Reiners, who were also liberal activists, to their political views, and appeared to suggest that was a motive in their killings. Police have not confirmed how the Reiners died or a motive, though Nick Reiner was known to have struggled with substance use and had argued with his father at Conan O’Brien’s holiday party the night before.
“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 on Truth Social.
“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.”
“This is a sick man,” Newsom said Monday morning. Republicans like Reps. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who have publicly challenged Trump in recent months, also criticized the president’s response.
Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom later released a statement saying they were “heartbroken” over the Reiners’ death and called Rob Reiner a “big-hearted genius.”
“His boundless empathy made his stories timeless, teaching generations how to see goodness and righteousness in others – and encouraging us to dream bigger. That empathy extended well beyond his films,” the Newsoms said.
Newsom later told reporters that Reiner, an early advocate for curbing tobacco sales, was one of the few who publicly supported him in the early 2000s when the then-San Francisco Mayor came under fire within his own party for championing gay marriage, a position that John Kerry later claimed cost him the 2004 presidential election.
“I was out there feeling a little alone doing same-sex marriage in 2004,” Newsom said. “It was Rob who reached out. It’s how I got to know him, saying he had my back at a time when a lot of members of my own party, the Democratic Party, didn’t.”
Newsom said he last spoke to Reiner on a Zoom call a few weeks ago, and said the two had been friends for decades.
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 9:23 AM.
