While Donald Trump could be celebrating policy success to help Republicans lock in key voters, like Generation Z, the president is being accused by his own supporters of taking a big backward step with a cruel and unfeeling post after Rob Reiner, a longtime critic, was brutally murdered Sunday.
Gen Z voters, born 1997-2012, shifted to the right in last November’s presidential election, giving Trump 46% of their vote.
Kamala Harris still won the demographic with 52% but by far less than Joe Biden’s 61% in 2020.
These voters were watching Monday when Trump belittled actor-director Reiner hours after he and his wife, Michele, were found murdered in their Los Angeles home. The couple’s son, Nick Reiner, is in custody charged with the killings.
Rob Reiner, a vocal liberal activist, parroted liberal talking points about Republicans and conservatives being "Nazis" and a danger to democracy.
Back in September, Reiner clashed with Bill Maher over if conservatives and liberals should at least talk and debate about their disagreements. "Before you have the exchange, you have to agree on certain facts," Reiner argued.
Reiner was also a longtime Trump critic. He has called him mentally unfit, a con man, and “the single-most unqualified human being ever to assume the presidency.”
With Reiner unable to respond, Trump blasted away in a Truth Social post saying Reiner’s death was “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. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump.”
Trump continued, saying Reiner showed “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.”
On social media, the post drew an overwhelming negative response from many Trump supporters beginning with the comments in the post.
"President Trump, preserve the dignity of your office. Take this down," Lila Rose, the pro-life leader, wrote on X.
In an appearance on Fox News, actor James Woods said he and Reiner disagreed about politics but went on to call Reiner a "patriot" who loved his country.
Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Turning Point USA, credited Reiner for speaking with "grace and compassion" after Charlie Kirk's death. "May God be close to the broken hearted in this terrible story," he wrote in an X post.
Not helpful for GOP
After his comment blew up social media, Trump is being reminded Republicans are trying to maintain slim majorities in both the House and Senate, and their leader didn’t help them.
“Taking a victory lap when a critic is killed? That's how you lose Gen Z and Independents. We can't sit on a pedestal and condemn the Left, but then normalize this,” Brilyn Hollyhand, a young conservative activist and host of The Brilyn Hollyhand Show, wrote on X.
Hollyhand was a guest on American Family Radio Tuesday. He told show host Jenna Ellis the president is basically stepping on rakes when losing control of Congress could stymie the last two years of his term.
“In just a few days, we'll be hitting 2026 and start the ground game to win back Gen Z into our party to make sure that Gen Z voting for the GOP in 2024 wasn't just an anomaly, an accident, a one-time shift, but that they were a part of our base going forward,” Hollyhand said.
Trump owes his landslide win, and the GOP owes control of Congress to Gen Z, he said.
“Keeping their support alongside the Independents, as you just mentioned, is pivotal for the future of the Republican Party as a whole, and posts like this just genuinely are the big things that kind of make a bad taste in Gen Z's mouth.”
Mike Lawler (New York), Sephanie Bice (Oklahoma), Thomas Massie (Kentucky), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) and Don Bacon (Nebraska) are among House Republicans who have publicly criticized Trump for his comments.
The White House has not issued a response to criticism of the post, but Trump doubled down Monday. When fielding questions from reporters at the Oval Office the president responded with, “Well, not a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person,” adding that Reiner was “very bad for our country.”
Not part of a cult
Hollyhand said his phone blew up with texts from friends, confused and concerned, after the post.
It’s important for conservatives to find their voices in opposition to Trump’s comments, he said.
“We're not a part of a cult," he countered. "We saw the big move when the Left laughed at Charlie Kirk's assassination. Did Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Kamala Harris, anybody call out the Left for laughing at the cowardly assassination of our friends? No, not a single one,” Hollyhand said.
As much as the post was in poor taste, it’s also a distraction, sucking the life from a conversation in which Trump could otherwise legitimately tout his victories. Instead, there’s this.
Republicans have to course-correct from Trump’s self-inflicted damage, Hollyhand said, to create momentum for 2026 and beyond
“This right here is what will lose Gen Z, not only in the midterms, but I'm thinking 2028, and we have to course-correct now before we're sitting on the other side of the election going, how did we lose such an important race?”
