Podcaster Joe Rogan has again rebuked Donald Trump, whom he endorsed in the 2024 presidential election, this time criticizing the president over his response to the murder of filmmaker Rob Reiner.
Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were found stabbed to death at their home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on December 14, with their son, Nick Reiner, 32, arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder later that day.
The tragic fate of the director of such popular films as This Is Spinal Tap and A Few Good Men was met with widespread shock and dismay. Still, the president nevertheless could not resist mocking the lifelong Democrat, who had been an outspoken Trump critic for many years.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social less that 24 hours after Reiner’s murder was reported.
The president’s comments immediately attracted a huge backlash, with the estranged Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, along with Piers Morgan and Ana Navarro, among a host of public figures to condemn him and call on him to delete the offending post – a request Trump ignored.
Now, Rogan has added his voice to the chorus of disapproval, saying there was “no justification” for Trump’s reaction.
Chatting with comedian Shane Gillis on the latest episode of The Joe Rogan Experience on Spotify, the host said, “The Rob Reiner thing is not funny.
“Look, there’s no justification for what [Trump] did that makes any sense in a compassionate society. It’s no different than people that were celebrating when Charlie Kirk got shot.”
Rogan was referring to the assassination of the Turning Point USA co-founder on a Utah college campus on September 10, which inspired gloating in certain corners of the internet that, in turn, led grieving conservatives to call for action.
Both Rogan and Gillis agreed there would have been a much bigger public outcry, particularly on right-wing media, had Barack Obama made an equivalent remark about Reiner.
In fact, Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, were such good friends with the Reiners that they had been expecting to have dinner with them on the very day the couple’s bodies were found.
“It just shows you how crazy it is, the way Trump thinks and talks,” Rogan continued. “It’s just like the guy got sliced up by his kid, you know? Anybody that doesn’t see that and go, ‘F***, man...’”
“I wish [Trump] could apologize. I know he can’t and he won’t,” Gillis added.
“It’s so dark, man,” Rogan responded, before going on to reveal that the director had expressed interest in appearing on his show to discuss the assassination of John F Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963 and the many conspiracy theories surrounding that case.
He acknowledged that Reiner had been a long-time opponent of Trump and his politics, but said the commander-in-chief’s reaction was “disappointing” all the same.
Rogan hosted Trump on his show in the final weeks of last year’s presidential election – a gesture that was credited with helping the Republican candidate reach a younger, predominantly male audience at a key moment – but has since become gradually more and more critical of the president, opposing the ICE crackdown on undocumented migrants and his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Within the last month alone, Rogan has mocked Trump for texting like a “79-year-old kid,” questioned the wisdom of his planned UFC bout on the White House Lawn next year, and called the president’s attempts to remake Washington landmarks like the Kennedy Center in his own image “crazy” and “insane.”
“There’s nothing nuttier than the plaques underneath the presidents,” Rogan said of the “Presidential Walk of Fame” Trump has installed in the White House’s West Colonnade, which includes a gilt-framed portrait of an autopen in place of Joe Biden’s picture to mock his predecessor.
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