Donald Trump wants to hurt you.

This is abuse.

Close-up portrait of Rob Reiner, with hands raised, speaking at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2016

On Sunday, December 14, 2025, Director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found in their home stabbed to death by their son. When the news broke, my hands were stiff and twitching, inflamed from typing “Flowers at Farragut,” a reflection on the death of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, the National Guard soldier who was shot outside a DC Metro on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and already more death was in the air. A “golden age,” President Donald Trump calls it—perhaps for carrion.

The previous day, a mass shooting at Brown University killed two students, and nine others were wounded. FBI Director Kash Patel—or as I call him, “Kush” Patel, because that fool has to be smoking something—for the second time this year, bragged that the culprit was in custody after detaining the wrong man. When questioned about this failure, President Donald Trump blamed the school.

The whole globe seemed to be in a state of mass violence. In Sydney, Australia, an ISIS-inspired antisemitic attack on a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach left at least a dozen people dead and more than forty others wounded. In Syria, an ISIS-linked ambush killed two U.S. National Guard soldiers and a civilian interpreter and wounded several more of America’s brave men and women in uniform.

And how did our president respond to these tragedies? Did he give them the sobriety, respect, and urgency they demand? Of course not. Mr. Trump responded to the murder of Mr. Reiner and his wife not with condolences but by tweeting that Mr. Reiner was “tortured,” “struggling,” “paranoi[d],” and suffered from “massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind-crippling disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome.” He suggested, without evidence, that Mr. Reiner’s outspoken criticism of Mr. Trump “dr[ove] people CRAZY” and contributed to his death, that Mr. Reiner was, in the president’s formulation, so annoying that someone just had to kill him.

Fuck this president. Fuck him.

When asked about his post, the orange clown described Mr. Reiner, the two-time Emmy winner and Oscar nominee, as “deranged” and “very bad for our country.” I feel the same about him.

To my surprise, even Republican lawmakers called the comments “inappropriate” and “disrespectful.” (Though I am sure by Christmas, many will claim that every Johnny Six-Pack on Main Street talks this way about the recently departed.)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.): “Rob Reiner and his wife were tragically killed at the hands of their own son, who reportedly had drug addiction and other issues, and their remaining children are left in serious mourning and heartbreak. This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies… and should be met with empathy.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.): “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.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.): “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.”

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.): “I’d expect to hear something like this from a drunk guy at a bar, not the president of the United States. Can the president be presidential?”

Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.): “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.”

To those Republicans: Condemn the comments if you must. Or don’t. I don’t care about your dismay. What I care about—what you should care about—is that the president of the United States celebrates the murder of his critics. Condemn that. And if you have any conscience left, recognize that you are complicit in his hate if you will not impeach, convict, and remove him. If you find this conduct unconscionable but will do nothing to stymie its inevitable escalation, resign in disgrace. Give your seat to someone who will.

If Mr. Trump suggests that Mr. Reiner deserved to die at the hands of “MAGA”—even though MAGA was not involved in his murder—who else would he like to watch die? Would he enjoy it if something were to happen to me, or you, or anybody who does not enjoy the abuse?

Our “lamestream media” seems incapable of focusing on the undeniable reality that Mr. Trump is a sadist who relishes using his power and platform to inflict pain on Americans. This is nothing new. This is not a lapse in judgment or an unfortunate tweet. On January 6, 2021, damnable rioters beat Capitol Police officers with flagpoles. Michael Fanone was assaulted, dragged through a crowd, tased in the neck, and had a heart attack. Insurrectionists searched for his weapon so they could shoot him with it. Upon his inauguration this year, Mr. Trump pardoned every one of them. Just one month later, at the Principles First Summit in DC, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio came to video himself harassing Mr. Fanone again, for old time’s sake. I doubt Mr. Trump disapproved.

In 2016, protesters showed up at Mr. Trump’s rallies to criticize his rhetoric about immigration, because it was, and I will use the technical term here, racist as shit. Then-candidate Trump told his supporters he would like to “punch [them] in the face,” and “knock the crap out of them.” He promised to “pay [their] legal bills”—bail them out, erase the consequences, if they assaulted other Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. How the hell did Republicans rationalize that it would not get worse from there?

Why is Mr. Trump coy about condemning white supremacist terrorism? Why, during the 2020 campaign, when asked directly to denounce white supremacists and militia groups, did he tell the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by?” Not “stand down.” Not “you are a stain on this nation.” “I condemn white supremacists.” Four words. Eight syllables. Seems easy—unless you like them. Unless you love them. Unless you fantasize about them hurting people in your name.

Mr. Trump has bragged he “ha[s] the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump … the tough people,” and warned that if his opponents “push,” “it’s going to be very bad.” Why did no one ask: “Mr. President, what does it matter how tough your supporters are unless you want them to fight someone?”

Mr. Trump plans, on any pretext he can manufacture, to put the National Guard into as many American cities as he will be allowed. He has bragged about Guard troops “pounding” teenagers for “disrespecting them.” The Department of Defense told The Intercept that anecdote was “bullshit,” it did not happen, and that is not what those who put on the uniform are trained to do. But Mr. Trump wishes it had, and it will happen in the world he wants to build.

If Mr. Trump thinks it is understandable that someone would kill Rob Reiner—if he thinks Mr. Reiner’s criticism was so intolerable that violence against him makes sense—then his most unhinged supporters will take that as encouragement, permission, and instruction.

This ought to be the front page of every newspaper, every day, until he is removed from office: Donald Trump wants to hurt you. Republicans are not so detached from reality that they cannot hear this. Those who disagree stay silent because they do not want to be targeted by Mr. Trump’s supporters. (Ms. Greene reported that after criticizing the president’s concealment of the Epstein files, “[she] got a pipe bomb threat on [her] house, … on [her] construction company, multiple pizza doxxing deliveries, and a direct death threat, multiple direct death threats on [her] son.”)

And those who agree with Mr. Trump await his orders.

This president is unfit for office and a danger to this Republic. He incites violence, he fantasizes about violence, and when Americans die, he mocks them. Those who serve in this administration, those who enable this man, and those who stay silent, must never be allowed to say “We didn’t know! We were deceived!” when the worst happens. By now, they know.