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The president is the one individual in the US with the megaphone to talk to the nation and information them by moments of tragedy. This morning, Donald Trump used that megaphone to hijack the obvious homicide of the director Rob Reiner and his spouse, Michele Singer Reiner, in service of his political grievances.
“A really unhappy factor occurred final evening in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, however as soon as very gifted film director and comedy star, has handed away, collectively along with his spouse, Michele, reportedly because of the anger he triggered others by his huge, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a thoughts crippling illness referred to as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, typically known as TDS,” Trump wrote on Reality Social. “He was recognized to have pushed individuals CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump.” He then closed, incongruously, “Might Rob and Michele relaxation in peace!”
The publish was nauseating even by Trump’s requirements. Although Reiner was an outspoken Trump critic and longtime progressive activist, no critical reviews have tied the deaths to his politics. Police have arrested the Reiners’ youthful son, who had spoken publicly about fighting habit and homelessness. This makes Trump’s publish appear even stranger. Did he invent this concept within the hope {that a} Trump supporter had killed the Reiners? Was his publish meant as a menace to different anti-Trump individuals, warning that talking out would possibly get them killed? Is he merely terribly merciless?
In search of a thought-about which means in Trump’s phrases could be a wild-goose chase, although. The best cause Trump posted this is similar cause he posts something: The person can’t resist making the whole lot about himself, even when it’s the heartbreaking homicide of a beloved artist in an alleged home dispute. If “TDS” is the tendency to grow to be irrationally obsessive about Donald Trump and venture that obsession onto everybody else, then any individual is certainly deranged, and it wasn’t Rob Reiner.
Trump’s publish creates some pungent ironies. “You received’t see individuals on the appropriate celebrating the horrific homicide of Rob Reiner and his spouse,” the Trump ally and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec wrote on X final evening. “Evaluate to the Left’s response to Charlie Kirk’s homicide,” Posobiec added. That’s an illuminating comparability. When Kirk critics introduced up his extra inflammatory rhetoric after his assassination in September, some outstanding figures on the appropriate, together with the legal professional normal, accused them of hate speech, and scores have been fired from their jobs. (This got here on the similar time that many right-wing pundits have been celebrating Kirk as a champion of free speech.) Evidently the identical requirements don’t apply to Trump—although the replies to his publish on Reality Social recommend some revulsion even among the many type of devoted followers who hang around on his private social community.
Trump has by no means shined in moments that decision for dignity and restraint. Yesterday, discussing the mass taking pictures at Brown College on Saturday, the president appeared chilly: “Issues can occur,” he mentioned. Empathy doesn’t come naturally to him, even when it might be politically useful. Visiting Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria throughout his first time period, Trump gave us the indelible picture of tossing paper-towel rolls to beleaguered survivors.
That is what makes Trump’s publish in regards to the Reiners not simply despicable and merciless but in addition unhealthy for the nation. In moments of nationwide mourning or trauma, a president can search to deliver individuals collectively: Consider Ronald Reagan’s remarks after the Challenger catastrophe, George W. Bush’s speech atop the rubble at Floor Zero, or Barack Obama’s eulogy on the memorial for victims of the Mom Emanuel bloodbath. Absent these presidents’ real capacity and intuition to encourage unity, a pacesetter can pretend it, providing not less than a boilerplate assertion. If nothing else, they’ll simply preserve quiet.
However not Trump. He finds probably the most divisive method to insert himself. The president started this 12 months with one other lowlight: After an air crash over the Potomac River in Washington, Trump was fast to level fingers (DEI was, absurdly, one of many supposed culprits) and sluggish to console. His selections deny the nation an opportunity to mourn, they usually take moments that could possibly be unifying—certainly People of all political beliefs can agree on the greatness of When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride—and switch them into alternatives for anger.
Which is, in impact, Trump’s political venture. As James Mattis, Trump’s first protection secretary, mentioned in June 2020, “Donald Trump is the primary president in my lifetime who doesn’t attempt to unite the American individuals—doesn’t even fake to strive. As a substitute, he tries to divide us.” Some indicators have emerged of People rejecting this angle, together with big “No Kings” protests and Trump’s sinking approval ranking. However by different measures, Trump has been profitable. The nation is unhappy, offended, and divided—coming to resemble its president extra on a regular basis.
