Donald Trump stood firm Monday on his disturbing comments about Rob Reiner hours after the famed Hollywood filmmaker’s murder.

Only a handful of loyal MAGA-ites (such as George Santos) have defended Trump’s claim earlier Monday that Reiner would not have been murdered if he had supported the MAGA movement. Instead, people across the nation have condemned Trump’s remarks, including Republican lawmakers and powerful Christians.

But the public backlash hasn’t bothered Trump one bit. Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office Monday afternoon, Trump emphasized that he was “not a fan of Rob Reiner at all.”

“He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned,” Trump said, referring to himself in the third person. “He said, he liked, he knew it was false. In fact it’s 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.”

Reiner was found stabbed to death in his Los Angeles home Sunday alongside his wife, producer Michele Singer Reiner. Their son, 32-year-old Nick Reiner, was taken into custody on homicide charges early Monday and is being held on $4 million bail.

“I think he hurt himself in career-wise. He became like a deranged person. Trump derangement syndrome,” Trump said. “So 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.”

Q: A number of Republicans have denounced your statement on Rob Reiner. Do you stand by it?

TRUMP: Well, I wasn't a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. pic.twitter.com/HmNJvUXV9w

Reiner’s vast and varied trove of work made him a cinematic legend, with each film standing as a template of its respective genre. Reiner enthralled children and adults alike with The Princess Bride, created the blueprint for romantic comedies with When Harry Met Sally…, and practically invented the mockumentary with This Is Spinal Tap.

He was a longtime critic of the president’s agenda.

Stephen Miller made an odious threat on X Monday against “the violent fifth column of domestic terrorists” after the Department of Justice announced it had stopped a bombing plot in California.

“Following the issuance of NSPM-7 vast government resources have been unleashed to find and dismantle the violent fifth column of domestic terrorists clandestinely operating inside the United States,” Miller’s post read.

NSPM-7 refers to a memo issued by the Trump administration titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” in September that directs federal agencies to focus on domestic extremism. The document defines extremism in terms of common liberal and left-wing beliefs, such as anti-capitalism, as well as vague and subjective positions, for instance “extremism” on race, migration, and gender.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that the DOJ foiled a New Year’s Eve bombing plot against targets in Orange County and Los Angeles. The plot was reportedly hatched by “The Turtle Island Liberation Front—a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group.” The group also planned to attack ICE agents and their vehicles, Bondi said.

This matches up with NSPM-7’s definition of domestic terrorism, and judging from Miller’s post, discovering and foiling the supposed plot is a product of that memo. Miller’s use of “fifth column” refers to a group of people within a country seeking to undermine it from within. It has been used by right-wing groups and governments to attack Muslims and other groups they deem subversive.

In Miller’s hands, the use of such language evokes racism and bigotry, especially considering his known efforts to use his position in the Trump administration to advance his anti-immigrant, xenophobic ideology. That, coupled with Trump and conservatives’ attacks on any dissenting views, suggests that the full force of the government can now be directed at anyone who disagrees with the people in power.

North Carolina’s Randolph County chose to dissolve its entire library board rather than allow a book about a trans child to sit on the shelves. 

Last week, the county Board of Commissioners voted 3–2 to dismiss every single member of the library board, just weeks after they declined to reshelve or remove a picture book titled Call Me Max, a story about a transgender boy who wants to be called by his chosen name in class. 

Tami Fitzgerald, head of North Carolina Values Coalition, a conservative group that focuses on religious freedom and drew media attention to the library board’s decision, argued that the book “teaches children that their parents may be wrong about their gender, and that their gender is actually whatever they feel it is.” 

“Planting this lie in a child’s mind at a young age can lead them down a harmful path of social and medical transitioning,” she told The Washington Post. 

Kyle Lukoff, a trans man and the book’s author, thinks this is just another attempt from Trump’s GOP to muzzle his community. 

“Policies can be helpful, but this is ultimately a question of power,” he said. “If there are people in power who simply believe trans people don’t belong in their communities or the world at large, they will simply twist those policies to try and make it a........

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