What Did We Really Learn About Donald Trump Yesterday?
(Warning: It's a trick question.)
What did we actually learn about Donald J. Trump’s character when he reacted to the brutal family tragedy with this social media troll that blamed Reiner for his own murder? When he callously mocked and insulted the dead director as a “deranged person” who was “very bad for the country”? 1
What new insights did we get about Trump when he blamed the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife on Trump Derangement Syndrome?2 In The Atlantic, David Graham asks:
Did he invent this idea in the hope that a Trump supporter had killed the Reiners? Was his post intended as a threat to other anti-Trump people, warning that speaking out might get them killed? Is he simply extraordinarily cruel? [Note: Yes. yes, he is.]
So, what did we actually learn yesterday about the soul of the man who sits in the Oval Office?
I apologize for the trick question, because the answer is: Nothing.
We learned absolutely nothing.
This is a man who mocks the disabled; calls women pigs; who joked about the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband3; who calls political opponents “retarded”; who relishes cruelty; and delights in the suffering of his critics. This is the guy who just called for Democratic lawmakers to be HANGED; this is man who — OHFORCHRISTSAKES — this is who Trump is, and who he has always been.
Some of us has been writing about this with (I admit) staggering tedium for more than a decade. We’ve seen it over and over and over and over again.
So do not — do not — pretend to be surprised or imagine that this latest display of appalling indecency is somehow a one-off. Where other men have empathy, Trump has merely a black hole of toxic narcissism.
And, yet, even after all this time, many of his supporters (and members of a cowed media) continue to wallow in denial. “You won’t see people on the right celebrating the horrific murder of Rob Reiner and his wife,” right-wing spear-carrier Jack Posobiec predicted… shortly before Trump showered the world with his bullshit.
Happy Tuesday.
A quick reminder: If you find all of this appalling, nauseating, and deeply un-American, you are not the crazy ones. But this is the fight of our lifetimes, and the challenge of our generation.
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“The depravity of this soulless ghoul'“
A quick review of reactions across the political spectrum of decency:
Evangelical leader Russell Moore: “How this vile, disgusting, and immoral behavior has become normalized in the United States is something our descendants will study in school, to the shame of our generation.”
National Review’s Charles C. W. Cooke: “That Trump wrote this is insane and disgraceful. That the White House chose to tweet it out is pathological.
Sofia Kinzinger: “What is Trump’s legacy? An attempt to normalize dehumanization.”
Conservative lawyer and Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy: “No words. I mean, ‘disgraceful,’ ‘appalling,’ ‘atrocious’ -- those are words, but they don’t do it justice.”
Katie Phang: “It reflects the depravity of this soulless ghoul and how he is incapable of decency and good judgment.”
Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, who played a key role in attempts to reverse the 2020 election results: “This is a horrible example from Trump (and surprising considering the two attempts on his own life) and should be condemned by everyone with any decency.”
Conservative radio host Erik Erickson: “There are lots of evangelicals around the man. But they all seem more concerned with what they can get from him and not at all concerned with the state of his soul and where he will spend eternity.”
GOP Congressman Thomas Massie: “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.”
Bari Weiss’ Free Press reacted more in sorrow than anger: “Americans have become inured to Trump’s social media taunts. Yet he still finds ways to shock us on occasion. “But there’s a casual, unthinking (sic) cruelty that sometimes (sic) runs through him. Today, that dark side of his personality was on full display.”
CBS’s John Dickerson summed up what the episode said about Trump’s presidency:
In moments when the country looks up for orientation, Trump does not steady the room. He destabilizes it. He does not merely break norms; he erodes the conditions that make shared meaning possible. Where Reiner built a national cultural space—worlds we could all inhabit together—Trump dissolves it. He takes the scaffolding we’ve constructed and sets it on fire.
The Hypocrisy. It Burns. Again.
Some of you are, perhaps, old enough to remember when MAGA pretended (briefly) to care about civility and deployed the full force of both social media and state power to search out and punish anyone who mocked the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk.
“So, when you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out and, hell, call their employer,” Vice President JD Vance said back in September. “We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility.”
Critics were shamed, fired, and entertainers (Jimmy Kimmel) were suspended. And worse: “A retired policeman posted a Charlie Kirk meme. He spent a month in jail.”
Bushart, a retired police officer, was released from Perry County Jail in Linden, Tennessee, on Wednesday, more than five weeks since he was arrested at home after sharing a Facebook post about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah. The post quoted President Donald Trump saying “we have to get over it” after a deadly 2024 school shooting in Iowa. Authorities in Perry County had held Bushart on charges of threatening mass violence on school property, which he denied.
Purges were demanded and vigorously enforced.
Former adviser to President Donald Trump and right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon called for mass arrests and a crackdown on universities, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed staff to identify and discipline service members who mocked or condoned Kirk’s killing, two defense officials told NBC News.
Since Kirk’s assassination Wednesday, terminations and disciplinary actions against employees have mounted across industries.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called for the firing of American Airlines pilots accused of celebrating Kirk’s death. The pilots were “immediately grounded and removed from service,” according to Duffy.
“We heal as a country when we send the message that glorifying political violence is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!” he wrote on X.
American Airlines confirmed it had “initiated action to address this,” emphasizing that “hate-related or hostile behavior runs contrary to our purpose, which is to care for people on life’s journey.”
Delta Air Lines also announced it had suspended employees pending an investigation after they shared social media posts that “went well beyond healthy, respectful debate.” The airline did not disclose details about the posts, but said that violations of the company’s social media policy can lead to termination.
Idaho’s West Ada School District said it fired an employee who allegedly posted a video online. The school district did not elaborate on the contents of the video but said in a statement that it was “shocked and saddened” by it.
“West Ada remains committed to nurturing and supporting our students and families, and to addressing harmful actions thoughtfully, with care, and with a focus on doing what is right,” the school district said in a statement.
In Oregon, a middle school science teacher was placed on administrative leave for posting on Facebook that Kirk’s death “brightened up” his day, NBC affiliate KGW reported. The teacher ultimately resigned.
South Carolina’s Clemson University announced Saturday that an employee was suspended pending further investigation after they made social media posts about Kirk’s death.
But that was then. Trump? No regrets. No notes. Yesterday, in the Oval Office, he doubled down:
“He became like a deranged person – ‘Trump derangement syndrome,’” the president said. “So, I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country.
And with that, the bat signal went out to the far reaches of the MAGA swamp, which rushed to defend their master’s malignant narcissism. (I’ll spare you the feculence.)
Exit take: David French:
One thing about Trump is that almost every day he presents his supporters with an off-ramp. Every day he says or does something that allows decent people to say, “Ok, that’s enough. I’m out.”
The fact that so few people have taken those off-ramps has been a sign of strength. But as MAGA cracks, those off-ramps will become a weakness. Every day he’ll give people looking for an excuse to leave all the reason they need.
Today’s Podcast
Susie said WHAT?
One of the most-eye popping things you’ll see today: the interviews with Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles….
As Chris Cillizza notes: it’s hard to decide which is more remarkable, that: “a) she granted a series of 11(!) interviews with a reporter writing for Vanity Fair [or] b) she was so incredibly candid about not just Donald Trump but other senior members of the White House staff in those interviews.”
Let’s start with what she said about Trump. She said that he has “an alcoholic’s personality” — citing her life growing up with an alcoholic father in Pat Summerall, the legendary New York Giants kicker turned NFL broadcaster.
“High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink,” Wiles said. “And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” She added that like an alcoholic, Trump works off of “a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
Here’s how the NYT is reporting on these extraordinary interviews: “Susie Wiles Acknowledges Trump’s ‘Score Settling’ Behind Prosecutions.”
President Trump’s chief of staff said she tried to get him to end his “score settling” against political enemies after 90 days in office, but acknowledged that the administration’s still ongoing push for prosecutions has been fueled in part by the president’s desire for retribution.
Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, told an interviewer that she forged a “loose agreement” with Mr. Trump to stop focusing after three months on punishing antagonists, an effort that evidently did not succeed. While she insisted that Mr. Trump is not constantly thinking about retribution, she said that “when there’s an opportunity, he will go for it.”
Ms. Wiles made the comments in a series of extraordinarily unguarded interviews over the first year of Mr. Trump’s second term with the author Chris Whipple that are being published Tuesday by Vanity Fair.
Not only did she confirm that Mr. Trump is using criminal prosecution to retaliate against adversaries, she also acknowledged that he was not telling the truth when he accused former President Bill Clinton of visiting the private island of the sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Over the course of 11 interviews, Ms. Wiles offered pungent assessments of the president and his team: Mr. Trump “has an alcoholic’s personality.”
Vice President JD Vance has “been a conspiracy theorist for a decade” and his conversion from Trump critic to ally was based not on principle but was “sort of political” because he was running for Senate.
Elon Musk is “an avowed ketamine” user and “an odd, odd duck,” whose actions were not always “rational” and left her “aghast.”
Russell T. Vought, the budget director, is “a right-wing absolute zealot.”
And Attorney General Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” in handling the Epstein files.
Exit take: Yes, this does sound like an exit interview.
Tuesday dogs
Flashback: Pete with one of his best friends, Leo.
I should note that I was briefly associated with Reiner, when he asked me to serve on the advisory board of The Committee to Investigate Russia: “Reiner, Frum headline group pushing for Russia investigation” | CNN Politics
Other members on the advisory board include James Clapper, a former Director of National Intelligence; Charlie Sykes, a conservative commentator; Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; and Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Frum and Reiner emphasized on CNN that Russia news should be more available to Americans, which is the goal of their committee. The nonpartisan group will have Russia material available for its visitors, as well as a daily newsletter and breaking news updates.
There is actually no evidence that Trump or TDS played any role at all in the deaths of the Reiners. Their son, who has struggled with addiction for years, is being held in connection with the murders.
Remember this? Pelosi: Trump joking about attack on her husband ‘sick’
“Nancy Pelosi has a big wall wrapped around her house. Of course, it didn’t help too much with the problem she had, did it?” Trump quipped, in apparent reference to the attack on Paul Pelosi.
“We don’t have a wall around our house,” Pelosi said in an interview on ABC’s “The View” on Monday. “He’s always projecting. He probably has a wall around his house. We don’t have one around our house.”
“To make a joke of that, and then they laughed at that, so that the trauma of it all is not just the physical, but the impact of the rest of it,” Pelosi said.
I learned that 70% of the current republican party still approves of Trump and his policies. That is simply gobsmacking! This is the most unstable, mentally ill leader of any government in the world. He's in control of the nuclear arsenal. At this point, I think he's entirely capable of deploying it in a conniption fit. He needs to be impeached, or the 25th amendment applied to him. This simply can't end well. It's like a really bad movie.
Susie Wiles admits that Trump is an amoral psychopath. MAGA yawns.