A day after the murder of Rob and Michele Reiner, President Trump took to Truth Social to express his heartfelt sympathies to mock their deaths. Trump posted: “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. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his 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. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”
When he was later asked about his post, Trump replied, “So I was not a fan of Rob Reiner in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country.”
Trump’s comments drew the ire from Democrats and Republicans alike. Representative Don Bacon (R-NE) responded, “I’d expect to hear something like this from a drunk guy at a bar, not the president of the United States. Can the president be presidential?” Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) put it more succinctly, “He’s just lost it. He is such a sad, damaged person.”
The problem, however, is that Trump hasn’t lost anything. While it’s more overtly mean than usual, the basic lack of grief and respect for the dead displayed by those comments is entirely consistent with Trump’s past remarks.
For instance, in 2019, Trump lashed out at the late Senator John McCain. He said, “I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve. I don’t care about this. I didn’t get [a] thank you. That’s OK. We sent him on the way, but I wasn’t a fan of John McCain.” A few days later, he reiterated that, “I was never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be.” Trump was the only living president not to attend McCain’s 2018 service.
Both Reiner and McCain strongly opposed Trump and his policies. Not only is disloyalty a cardinal sin for Trump, but he has made it abundantly clear how he feels about his enemies: “I hate my opponent. And I don’t want the best for them.”
This is unsurprising. Much of Trumpian politics reflects an underlying commitment to what Carl Schmitt referred to as the “friend-enemy distinction.” For Schmitt, this distinction is not reducible to economic rivalries or moral disagreements. Rather, it is marked by an existential battle between two competing and opposed ways of life. In the extremism case of Trumpian politics, this amounts to the divide between MAGA (friends) and everyone else (enemies).
As enemies, Trump would of course celebrate the deaths of Reiner and McCain. Similarly, it explains why Trump would make light of the assassination attempt aimed at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; why he would so readily accuse Democratic lawmakers of being guilty of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” for urging military and intelligence officers to “refuse illegal orders.” It also explains his cavalier attitude towards those who are killed by military strikes conducted by the US or its allies. For instance, after Israel killed at least 20 senior Iranian commanders, Trump joked that, “Yeah. They didn’t die of the flu. They didn’t die of COVID.”
While this analysis is not without its merit, it would be wrong to reduce Trump’s attitude towards death entirely to the friend-enemy distinction.
On the one hand, Trump does not always ridicule the death of his opponents. Consider, for instance, how he reacted to the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg: “She led an amazing life. What else can you say? She was an amazing woman. Whether you agree or not, she was an amazing woman who led an amazing life. I’m actually saddened to hear that. I am saddened to hear that.” Ginsberg was no ally of Trump. In 2016, she referred to him as an inconsistent “faker” and, in reply, Trump said “her mind is shot.” And yet, after her death, no attacks, no jokes. (Maybe Trump isn’t sexist after all?!)
On the other hand, Trump has resorted to jokes and self-aggrandizement when discussing the death of his allies. A few weeks after the failed assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump briefly spoke about Corey Comperatore, the man who died at that rally. He told the crowd that a friend of his had given Corey’s wife a $1 million check. She replied, “But you know what? I’d rather have my husband.” Trump found this amusing. He tells the crowd, “Isn’t that good? I know a lot of wives that would not say that – I’m sorry. They would not say that.” At Charlie Kirk’s posthumous Medal of Freedom ceremony, Trump remarked that they “fired sniper rifles at ICE agents, and me, you know, but I was – I made a turn at a good time. I turned to the right. Charlie, couldn’t believe it, actually.” Given how Kirk died, some found these comments particularly insensitive.
So, how do we make sense of all this? Is this simply “the banality of evil”? The mind of a nobody who refuses “to think by themselves what they’re doing and who also refuse[s] in retrospect to think about it, that is, go back and remember what they did (e.g., repentance).I would say, no. Trump’s reactions are certainly erratic and volatile at times; but they are not without their own narcissistic rhyme and reason. Consider for instance Trump’s 2019 withdrawal of US troops from Syria’s border with Turkey. This act cleared the way for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to invade lands held by the Kurds –who, until then, had been US allies in the region. The invasion led to the deaths of hundreds and the displacement of approximately 300,000 people. Later that month, the US announced an agreement to halt the invasion. Erdoğan would gain control of the seized territory, and Trump would “keep the oil.” Trump bragged that this deal would not have occurred without the bloodshed. “Without that gunfire going back and forth, without those rockets going in both directions, without other countries moving in and potentially moving in and creating virtually a world war—without all of that happening, you would’ve never been able to make this deal.” The betrayal of US allies is justified here as “tough love” that ultimately served Trump’s interest. That’s the point.
Trump values life and death based on whether it benefits him. For Trump, McCain and Reiner were not only staunchly opposed to him in life, but their deaths did not benefit him either. Thus, they are ridiculed. Ginsburg also opposed him in life, but her death was valuable insofar as it paved the way for another right-wing Supreme Court justice. As such, he had no reason to be petty. He could just say a few kind words while rushing the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett in defiance of Ginsburg’s “most fervent wish” to not have Trump choose her successor.
At the 2024 Republican National Convention, Trump could exploit Comperatore’s death as a slain MAGA firefighter. It gave him the opportunity to demonstrate his ‘love’ for law and order by kissing and embracing a prop firefighter uniform – one that, tellingly enough, misspelled Comperatore’s name (Compertore). Given his role in helping Trump win the 2024 presidential election, Kirk was particularly beneficial to Trump in life. Because of this, he gets a huge, national memorial service. Of course, his death has to be valuable too. So, as with Comperatore, it is exploited to silence opposition and gain greater political control.
If a soldier doesn’t die in the service of Trump, if a politician doesn’t serve Trump’s interests, if celebrities don’t praise Trump’s name, then their lives are worthless. Within Trump’s worldview, their lives are not worth grieving because they were never valuable in the first place. The same logic applies to death. Ultimately, for Trump, life and death are not meaningful in and of themselves. They are resources that become valuable if and only if he can profit from them. Friend? Enemy? Irrelevant. All that matters is: in what state of being, do you benefit Trump the most? That is the core of the philosophy of life and death that informs everything from his policies to his personal reactions – and it is precisely what makes Trump such a dangerous political figure.
A leader who judges life and death as mere means to an end is not a leader worth following. Regardless of your own political commitments, regardless of how much you may personally like Trump, to him, you will never be more than an exploitable resource. We would all do well to remember that.