Legendary film director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were found murdered on Sunday, December 14, allegedly at the hands of their son, Nick, who has a history of substance abuse and mental health issues. Someone slit both of their throats. It’s a tragic end to the life of a man who gave our culture beautiful stories like The Princess Bride, Stand by Me, and many, many others.
As someone who fell in love with movies at a young age—a passion that has continued full steam ahead into my 40s—the loss of such a rare cinematic talent as Rob Reiner hits me pretty hard, like taking a shot to the liver from “Iron” Mike Tyson himself. That might shock anyone familiar with my work, since I’m an on-fire Catholic conservative who has always found Reiner’s leftist politics appalling. Heck, I’ve written more than my fair share of articles slamming his views during my nearly 14 years in the political commentary game.
However, I learned a long time ago that people are more than politics. Reiner was a person with dreams, a family, and people he cared about. Sure, his worldview differed greatly from my own, but he was still an image-bearer of God—a man who could craft stories that touched people even if they disagreed with his feelings about President Donald Trump or his views on immigration.
You can see the impact he had on people in the countless comments posted across social media and news comment sections. Thankfully, most of what I’ve seen from people on the right following Reiner’s passing has been kind, gracious, and genuinely caring—which is exactly what I expected. Most Republicans and conservatives hold moral values rooted in Christianity. Many of the comments I’ve read serve as solid examples of what it means to love your enemy, as Christ commands us to do.
However, I did come across something that deeply bothered me, which prompted me to write this. President Trump responded to Rob Reiner’s death in a way that left me disappointed. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. 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.”
Look, I understand it. Reiner made his distaste for the president very clear over the years. Trump never pretended to be a card-carrying member of the Rob Reiner fan club. Still, these comments landed poorly and unnecessarily. Don’t get me wrong—I love President Trump. I’m glad I voted for him. I support his America First agenda. But I follow Christ first and conservatism second. And Jesus commands us to love our enemies.
To love means to will the good of the other. Loving people isn’t easy, and loving those who despise you is even harder. But difficulty doesn’t excuse disobedience. We must will the good of even those who hate us. Full stop.
That said, Trump’s comments weren’t what truly bothered me. What troubled me more was watching conservatives justify striking back at an enemy—even after his death. Over and over again, I saw people argue that because Reiner attacked Trump during his life, Trump had every right to strike back. That justification didn’t sit right with me.
When someone assassinated conservative icon Charlie Kirk in September and leftists began celebrating his death, conservatives rightly expressed outrage. The celebrations showed a complete lack of empathy for Kirk as a human being—an insult that extended to his family and conservatives as a whole. People condemned those celebrations as immoral, and rightly so.
Yet now, some of the same people defend Trump’s ill-timed remarks using the same logic leftists used to justify celebrating Kirk’s murder. If we truly believe conservatism and Christianity represent the most moral worldviews, we must do more than pay lip service to our principles. We must live them—especially when others don’t.
Anything less makes us hypocrites. Leave that to the left. We should be better. We can be better. It’s also easy to tear into your harshest critic when he’s dead and can no longer defend himself or his beliefs. Reiner’s death remains fresh, and those who loved him—especially his family—are grieving. This isn’t the moment for harsh words. That moment comes later, after people have had time to heal.
Loving your enemy means refusing to kick him while he’s down. Just as nothing justified the left’s vile response to Charlie Kirk’s murder, nothing justifies nastiness in the wake of Reiner’s death. If we truly believe Christ’s teachings, we must put them into practice.
Supporting Trump doesn’t require defending every word he says. It also doesn’t require us to attack Reiner over his leftist politics. If you claim to follow Christ, your primary allegiance belongs to Him—not the president, not a political party. Jesus. So let’s live like it.
