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The president is the one individual in the USA with the megaphone to talk to the nation and information them via 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 night time in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, however as soon as very gifted film director and comedy star, has handed away, collectively together with his spouse, Michele, reportedly as a result of anger he brought about others via his huge, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a thoughts crippling illness referred to as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, generally known as TDS,” Trump wrote on Fact Social. “He was identified to have pushed folks CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump.” He then closed, incongruously, “Could 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 severe experiences 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 supposed as a risk to different anti-Trump folks, warning that talking out would possibly get them killed? Is he merely terribly merciless?
On the lookout for a thought of that means in Trump’s phrases may be a wild-goose chase, although. The best purpose Trump posted this is identical purpose he posts something: The person can not 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 change into irrationally obsessive about Donald Trump and challenge that obsession onto everybody else, then anyone is certainly deranged, and it wasn’t Rob Reiner.
Trump’s publish creates some pungent ironies. “You received’t see folks on the correct celebrating the horrific homicide of Rob Reiner and his spouse,” the Trump ally and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec wrote on X final night time. “Examine 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 distinguished figures on the correct, together with the lawyer normal, accused them of hate speech, and scores had been fired from their jobs. (This got here on the similar time that many right-wing pundits had 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 Fact 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 stated. Empathy doesn’t come naturally to him, even when it will 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 concerning the Reiners not simply despicable and merciless but in addition dangerous for the nation. In moments of nationwide mourning or trauma, a president can search to carry folks 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 potential and intuition to encourage unity, a frontrunner can faux it, providing a minimum of a boilerplate assertion. If nothing else, they’ll simply maintain quiet.
However not Trump. He finds probably the most divisive solution to insert himself. The president started this yr 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 gradual to console. His selections deny the nation an opportunity to mourn, they usually take moments that could possibly be unifying—absolutely Individuals 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 challenge. As James Mattis, Trump’s first protection secretary, stated in June 2020, “Donald Trump is the primary president in my lifetime who doesn’t attempt to unite the American folks—doesn’t even fake to attempt. As a substitute, he tries to divide us.” Some indicators have emerged of Individuals rejecting this angle, together with enormous “No Kings” protests and Trump’s sinking approval score. 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.
