“That should never happen to anybody. I don’t care what your political beliefs are,” Reiner said of Kirk’s shooting in September.

Rob Reiner’s remarks about Charlie Kirk killing resurface amid Trump mocking director’s death

"That should never happen to anybody. I don't care what your political beliefs are," Reiner said of Kirk's shooting in September.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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December 16, 2025 7:58 p.m. ET

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Rob Reiner at the 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival; Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Credit:

Jesse Grant/Getty; Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty

- Rob Reiner said that he felt "absolute horror" upon learning that Charlie Kirk had been shot.

- The *Princess Bride* filmmaker said "that should never happen to anybody. I don't care what your political beliefs are."

- Reiner's comments recirculated after President Trump said that he was "wasn't a fan" of the *Stand by Me* filmmaker when asked about his death.

Rob Reiner's remarks about Charlie Kirk's killing are resurfacing in the wake of the filmmaker's death.

Following the *Princess Bride* director's death by apparent homicide on Sunday — and President Trump's controversial comments criticizing the filmmaker following his death — social media users recirculated Reiner's comments about Kirk's death in September.

When Piers Morgan asked Reiner for his immediate reaction to Kirk's shooting, the *When Harry Met Sally* director responded, "Absolute horror," noting that he "unfortunately saw the video" of Kirk being shot at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Though Reiner, a lifelong liberal, disagreed with Kirk's conservative beliefs, the filmmaker's remarks about the incident emphasized the importance of nonviolence. "It's beyond belief what happened to him," he said. "That should never happen to anybody. I don't care what your political beliefs are. That's not acceptable. That's not a solution to solving problems."

Charlie Kirk at the White House in 2025.

Andrew Harnik/Getty

Reiner also praised Kirk's wife, Erika Kirk, for saying she forgave her husband's killer at his memorial. "I felt like what his wife said at the service, at the memorial they had, was exactly right," he said. "I'm Jewish, but I believe in the teachings of Jesus and I believe in 'do unto others' and I believe in forgiveness and what she said, to me, was beautiful. She forgave his assassin. And I think that is admirable.”

Reiner's sympathetic comments toward the Kirks starkly contrasted with President Trump's remarks about Reiner's death. Shortly after news broke that the *Stand by Me* director and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their home in Los Angeles as victims of an apparent homicide, Trump baselessly blamed the act of violence on Reiner's political beliefs.

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"A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. "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's post continued, "[Reiner] 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!"

The president was heavily criticized for the tastelessness of his comments about Reiner, even drawing rebukes from Republican politicians like Kentucky's Thomas Massie, New York's Mike Lawler, Oklahoma's Stephanie Bice, and Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Despite that criticism, Trump doubled down on his scornful comments about Reiner at a press conference on Monday. "I wasn't a fan of his at all," he said. "He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned."

Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner in Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2017.

Eric Charbonneau/Getty

He also accused Reiner of disseminating false information about his connections to Russia, claiming, "He knew it was false. In fact, it was the exact opposite — that I was a friend of Russia, controlled by Russia. You know it was the Russia hoax, he was one of the people behind it."

The president also claimed that Reiner "hurt himself career-wise" by repeatedly criticizing Trump's politics. "He became like a deranged person — Trump Derangement Syndrome," he said. "I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way, shape, or form. I thought he was very bad for our country."

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Morgan slammed Trump's remarks on *Piers Morgan Uncensored* on Monday. After a commentator suggested that nobody is celebrating Reiner's death, Morgan responded, "It sounds like Donald Trump…he's getting pretty close to it."

He continued, "When he says that he got killed 'reportedly due to the anger he caused others' with his 'mind-crippling disease Trump Derangement Syndrome,' there is zero evidence for any of that."

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