The Reiner murders
Rob Reiner’s son Nick – who was arrested for the murder of his parents – had a history of severe drug problems and had been behaving strangely lately:
Family friends told The Times that Rob and Nick Reiner got into an argument Saturday evening at a party at Conan O’Brien’s home and that many people noticed Nick acting strangely at the party.
Nick Reiner, who had struggled with addiction for years, was living in a guesthouse on his parents’ property, family friends told The Times, and his mother had become increasingly concerned about his mental health in recent weeks.
The family friends, who did not want to be identified because of the nature of the crime, said that the Reiners’ daughter found her parents Sunday afternoon.
What a terrible terrible situation for the daughter – not just finding the carnage, but losing nearly her entire family (there is one other surviving brother as well as a stepsister) in one fell swoop.
Also:
By 2015, he had gotten clean, working with his father on “Being Charlie,” a semi-autobiographical film about addiction and recovery. Rob Reiner directed and Nick co-wrote the film about a successful actor with political ambitions and a son addicted to drugs.
At the time of the premiere, The Times reported that Rob Reiner and his wife at their worst moments “wondered if there was an end in sight, and whether it would be the tragic one that a voice in the back of their heads kept telling them was coming.”
It’s the tragic one – very tragic. RIP.
Friends were not all that surprised:
Rob Reiner’s son Nick was notorious for being violent, and those around him “instantly knew’’ he was the one who allegedly murdered his parents, friends, and neighbors, told The Post on Monday.
“This is not the first time their son has been violent,’’ a longtime neighbor of the victims said of Nick Reiner, 32, who is charged with fatally slitting the throats of his parents in the family’s Los Angeles mansion. …
A former classmate of Nick’s told The Post that the suspect — who had been in and out of rehab since age 15 — has “always been troubled’’ and that she “instantly knew it was him’’ when she heard the news.
Depressing. So many families have a child lost to drugs, and the struggle can seem endless. Fortunately, they don’t all end up this way.
[NOTE: And yes, Trump chimed in with an offensive take on the event. Although he called the murders “a very sad thing” and wished that they “rest in peace,” he also took the occasion to rail against Reiner’s TDS (which the man definitely had) and to suggest it somehow contributed to his murder. This seems absurd and stupid, although it’s not the first time and probably not the last that it’s true of some of Trump’s utterances.]
A tragic end for this family. So many families have been torn apart by drug use and mental illness, often connected. The sister who lives across the street and found her parents’ bodies could use prayer.
Megyn Kelly played some clips showing Rob Reiner and his son, Nick, being interviewed. Nick seemed an articulate, thoughtful, handsome, young man.
–“Digging Into Troubled Life of Rob Reiner’s Drug-Addicted Son Who is Now Arrested For His Murder”
https://youtu.be/z3umI8EvKmw?t=158
Which isn’t to say he wasn’t troubled, just that I wouldn’t have thought he was likely to murder his parents one day.
My best friend has a very troubled son. No drugs involved, but he is on some sort of scale. He has attacked his Father more than once. Seems to get along better with his Mother. He functions in the outside world, but is better with his meds. He lives at home, Friend said that they can’t kick him out, law is on the kids side.
Not a good situation.
Slitting the throats of one’s parents indicates a mind controlled by evil. Such perps are not “troubled”; they have been seized by an evil force.
I don’t know for certain, but if Reiner was one of the many celebs who tweeted out “we deserve a better class of assassin” or some other form of “I’m so upset he missed” after Trump got shot, then I’m fine with his dumping on Reiner
A not-so-rare self own by Trump. It’s not all about him and he often doesn’t seem to realize it.
There are rumors that Nick Reiner recently announced that he is transgender and started on female hormones. Unconfirmed.
I’ve read a couple of things that the son is schizophrenic.
Sometimes DJT needs to count to 10.
I don’t know for certain, but if Reiner was one of the many celebs who tweeted out “we deserve a better class of assassin” or some other form of “I’m so upset he missed” after Trump got shot, then I’m fine with his dumping on Reiner
After the celebrations over Charlie Kirk’s murder, and the expressions of multiple people and celebrities like the ones quoted above after last year’s assassination attempts on Trump, pardon me if I don’t clutch the pearls over Trump’s tweet.
What Lefties whipping up the TDS and the all-consuming hatred of the Right fail to realize is that it won’t only be the ones on the Right being targeted in the frenzy. There will be some collateral damage on the Left, as drug-addled and/or crazy people aren’t too particular sometimes about who they lash out at.
When you let your forests become tinderboxes, sometimes your friendly local arsonists will take out acres of uninhabited national forest, and sometimes they will burn down extremely ritzy neighborhoods. You can’t control a wildfire when you’ve created the perfect conditions for a major one.
That’s the message I get from Trump’s tweet, written to guarantee a reaction, bringing this topic to the forefront for weeks longer than it would get if he had not.
Lab Rat:
In fact, Reiner was one of the people who condemned Kirk’s murder.
*J*F*M*:
Or perhaps 20.
Victor Davis Hanson has compared Trump to Shane (eponymous movie) in that the people in the story have a crisis on their hands and they need help badly. Shane had the where-with-all to deal with the problem but the locals were uneasy about him and would not be unhappy to see him leave after the job was done. After Trump’s pronouncements today, I think VDH was on to something. Imagine that, VDH making a correct analysis!
Rob Reiner showed no concern for the mental health or emotional well-being of Trump supporters when he relentlessly posted dehumanizing attacks, labeling them deplorable, fascist-enabling, or brainwashed. His words were designed to provoke, alienate, and isolate, without regard for how they eroded relationships, fueled anger, or left ordinary people feeling condemned for their votes.
He cared even less about the personal toll on Trump himself. The strategy was deliberate: portray Trump as unhinged, dangerous, and mentally unfit so that any reaction—impulsive or restrained—could be weaponized as proof of the accusation. It was a calculated effort to keep Trump and his base on the defensive, destabilize governance, and create chaos that could be exploited politically. For many in the anti-Trump resistance, disrupting effective leadership was not a side effect—it was the goal.
This constant psychological warfare likely took a human toll. Endless personal attacks from cultural figures and media can breed stress, paranoia, and a siege mentality in any leader. While impossible to prove definitively, it’s reasonable to argue that it contributed to impulsive communication, internal turmoil, or distraction from policy focus during Trump’s first term.
The bitter irony is that figures like Reiner justified their rage as moral defense of democracy, yet employed the same divisive, dehumanizing tactics they claimed to oppose. Empathy was selective—flowing freely toward their side while dismissing the pain inflicted on others as weakness or deserved punishment.
This one-sided vitriol made the rhetoric feel deeply personal to millions, because it was. It wasn’t about persuasion; it was about condemnation and control.
None of this justifies politicizing or exploiting a horrific family tragedy the way Trump did. But it does explain why so many quietly understood the raw impulse behind his response: after years of unrelenting, unreciprocated hostility, empathy had long stopped flowing in both directions.
In fact, Reiner was one of the people who condemned Kirk’s murder.
Well good on him for that. Seriously. And it seems his politics didn’t seep into his movies – again, good on him. It was horrible what happened to him, and may their souls rest in peace.
But the point about the tinderbox remains. The media and many powerful of the Left have cultivated this climate of hate and rage, focused on orange man bad, but it is not going to stay on him. Crazy people may take it to mean all on the Right are fair game. Other crazy people may not even care about someone’s politics and just think it is open season – no consequences, especially if they can lay claim to one of those get out of jail free cards like skin color, trans, or islam. And really crazy people aren’t going to care at all; the conditions are right – let it all burn.
Maybe it’s affecting me – maybe this climate of hate and rage has finally tipped me over the edge, not to homicide, but to indifference. Normally I might be taking offense – so crass, that Trump – but now? After the Bush years? Then Obama, Biden, Trump? You know what? I don’t care anymore. I will not celebrate people’s deaths. But I also will not feel bad if the left gets some of theirs back. It’s no win – take the high road and get the slings and arrows, and bullets, from the left, endlessly, or take the low road and suffer the disdain from the right, endlessly.
I watched Bush take it for 8 years, never gave back any of what he got. Did it help? I dunno, but it sure emboldened the Left to do more and worse. Then once the next Hitler was elected, he became the Good Guy he never was recognized for being while in office. Pretty good for a Chimpy McBushitler. All those 8 years, I wished he’d just once stand up and give back just a little of what he got.
But those decades of losing gracefully and quietly are why we have Trump, I think. It’s sure not pretty, but pretty and nice wasn’t getting us anywhere and the country was sliding into the pit faster every year, so I’m willing to give down and dirty a chance, if it helps the country. If it doesn’t, at least the left got challenged, briefly and publicly, on their horrid behavior.
No, President Trump’s negative remarks about Rob Reiner were not a good look. But can any Democrat politician be trusted to lead our Republic? I think not.
Re Trump, as Lincoln said about General Grant, “He fights!”
David you nailed it.
Mike Benz spoke about a connection between Rob Reiner and the CIA several years ago.
https://x.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/2000667770334171435
If true, President Trump would certainly be aware of this and would give reason for his intemperate remarks. Like most commenters here, President Trump would be well advised to count to 20 before jumping into heated discussions. However, considering the forces that tried to bankrupt, destroy and eventually kill him, as well as possible CIA links to Reiner, I think his outburst, although ill advised, is understandable.
A close friend had a daughter who got into drugs at an early age. My friend tried caring for her daughter professionally, sending her to various programs, and everything she could to bring the young girl around. After about ten years of short periods of sobriety followed by the girl running away and doing more drugs, the mother finally just washed her hands of the situation — something I had a very hard time understanding or accepting, but eventually came to accept as the only option left her.
I have not talked to my friend in more than a decade about where things stand now, but I would not be surprised that she had not heard from her daughter for years and accepts the strong possibility that the young woman has died. At the very least, she is dead to her mother and friends.
A horrible, tragic, outcome, though not as tragic as the Reiners’ situation. That’s the closest I have come to seeing the scourge of illegal drugs first-hand, and it’s a wrenching experience. In the final analysis, it’s as if the daughter never existed. But for the ten years or so preceding her final departure, her mother and many of her friends lived in hell. Not to be wished on your worst enemy.
I remember Biden on a podium in front of a blood red and black stage calling half the country Nazis and Fascists. I don’t remember Democrats decrying that.
Bad look by Trump, But, are the Dems gonna say it’s terrible? It is, but which ones condemned the cheering over Kirk’s death (Reiner maybe one of the few), or the call to tone things down after the assassination attempt the murdered an innocent?
Perhaps Trump wants to be in poor taste, to later highlight hypocritical complaints about him, but not the many abusive Dems. (Manipulating folk like me into writing about it)
Is it true that Rob had TDS? Very much yes.
So much that he drove people crazy? His son crazy?
Maybe.
What if son Nick said he supported Trump or some Trump action and father Rob goes on a purely verbal but abusive rampage?
What if Nick’s lawyer claims insanity based on some Rob rage about Trump, claiming the father DID make him crazy?
It’s part of the Democrat Demonization Strategy, by Dems on Dems, making Dems irrational, if not crazy.
Q for Neo—have you ever talked explicitly about TDS with any Trump hating family or friends? Could you?
People in their lives do many things wrong and many wrong things. One can avoid calling attention to that for a period of time after their death.
Rob Reiner died in the hand of a son he raised and influenced with liberal ideals and the tragedy was enabled by every democratic policy he supported.
He supported the defunding of police after the death of George Floyd, and he condemned the police officer who was doing his job protecting the community by restraining a violent drug dealer. He condemned every action taken by Trump to keep drugs out of America. He probably supported Newsom’s policies of decriminalizing drug use and fought against any measures to keep the mentally ill off the streets. How ironic that he ended up being killed by a violent drug addict with mental problems who should have been institutionalized, with no police around to protect him.
He died by the very politics he supported. I am simply using the Democrats’ own standards to judge them; didn’t they celebrate the irony that the gun advocate Charlie Kirk was supposedly killed by a gun?
Contrary to the conventional wisdom of not speaking ill of the dead, now is exactly the best time to emphasize how destructive Democratic ideals can be. Any refusal to reflect on and learn from these mistakes in the heat of tragedy is putting this tragedy to waste
No one deserves to be killed by a beloved son, i condemn violence, but it is worth mentioning that this is entirely different from the charlie Kirk assassination. Leftists made fun of his death after him being assassinated by a leftist, Rob Reiner died by a situation enabled by liberal ideals he supported
Yes Art, what you say is correct, but with Trump it was personal. Reiner spent the latter part of his life dedicated to destroying Trump and by purpose to bring down the duly elected government of the USA. He was a bad character.
As yet no details have been released about Nick Reiner’s possible motives. This morning he will not appear for a hearing because he is “not medically cleared” for it. As many families who have dealt with the scourges of addiction and abuse know, the errant family member’s behavior may have nothing to do with parenting or politics.