General Discussion

Jspur

(783 posts) Tue Dec 16, 2025, 01:41 AM Yesterday

Trump is using his attack on Rob Reiner to distract people again from Epstein and his ACA debacle

. It's very frustrating how people keep falling for the old trick bag when it comes to Trump. It's very predictable whenever he has a failure or is involved in a scandal he will rachet up inflammatory attacks whether it's racism, sexism, xenophobia, or personal attacks like he did on Reiner to get people to stop talking about his screw ups and failures. It's very frustrating to see this play out every single damn time.

I'm not saying what he did to Reiner shouldn't be condemned but I'm saying people need to continue to attack him on his policy failures and Epstein and not ever take the foot off the gas when it comes to this. This is the only way to weaken him. When you respond to his inflammatory attacks he regains strength again.

11 replies

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Trump is using his attack on Rob Reiner to distract people again from Epstein and his ACA debacle (Original Post) Jspur Yesterday OP

I can walk and chew gum. RandySF Yesterday #1

Same orangecrush Yesterday #5

Backfiring? The disdain that even many supporters have for his despicable posts re: Reiner combine to affirm hlthe2b Yesterday #2

Or he evaluates people only on how they treat him karynnj Yesterday #8

You're giving him too much credit D_Master81 Yesterday #3

I think you're right orangecrush Yesterday #6

Where is the evidence that shows Trump is smart enough to do that? Kaleva Yesterday #4

I'm not saying Trump is some mastermind genious but his strategy of distraction Jspur 3 hrs ago #10

Except this hasn't distracted from his failures with the economy, mwmisses4289 Yesterday #7

MaddowBlog-On the Reiners' death, Trump should have quit while he was behind LetMyPeopleVote 3 hrs ago #9

No strategy here... lame54 2 hrs ago #11

RandySF

(80,702 posts)

1. I can walk and chew gum.

Reply to Jspur (Original post)

Tue Dec 16, 2025, 01:42 AM

Yesterday

orangecrush

(28,005 posts)

5. Same

Reply to RandySF (Reply #1)

Tue Dec 16, 2025, 08:39 AM

Yesterday

hlthe2b

(112,544 posts)

2. Backfiring? The disdain that even many supporters have for his despicable posts re: Reiner combine to affirm

Reply to Jspur (Original post)

Tue Dec 16, 2025, 06:37 AM

Yesterday

that HE is likely guilty of far more in relation to Epstein and Epstein's crimes than has yet been confirmed. I actually think the former makes even that population "primed" to believe more than they would have before WHEN the facts come out.

karynnj

(60,742 posts)

8. Or he evaluates people only on how they treat him

Reply to hlthe2b (Reply #2)

Tue Dec 16, 2025, 09:39 AM

Yesterday

Rob Reiner spoke out on many evil things that Trump has done.

I think Trump's vile rant was because he was beginning to see the heart felt praise from not just from Democratic leaders, but from people in entertainment who knew him or just loved his work. I suspect that many were people who Trump wanted to like him, but they didn't.

I don't believe that Trump strategically puts out his hateful rants to distract from other things. His rants are frequent ... as are negative stories on him. Not to mention, even if people could deal with just one controversy at a time which I dispute, all that would do is create the chaos of never ending negatives.

I don't think people losing ACA subsidies or know people who are will suddenly forget that or forget it was done to give a permanent tax cut to billionaires. As to the Epstein stories, they will dribble out, but it was clear even from what was known in 2016 that Epstein might have been the closest thing to a friend Trump had.

D_Master81

(2,334 posts)

3. You're giving him too much credit

Reply to Jspur (Original post)

Tue Dec 16, 2025, 07:24 AM

Yesterday

I think this is just who he is not some kind of intricate plot to distract the public.

orangecrush

(28,005 posts)

6. I think you're right

Reply to D_Master81 (Reply #3)

Tue Dec 16, 2025, 08:39 AM

Yesterday

Kaleva

(40,112 posts)

4. Where is the evidence that shows Trump is smart enough to do that?

Reply to Jspur (Original post)

Tue Dec 16, 2025, 08:22 AM

Yesterday

By many accounts, especially by people who have worked with him , Trump is pretty clueless and everything has to be about him. I haven’t seen any evidence that Trump is capable of strategic thinking.

Jspur

(783 posts)

10. I'm not saying Trump is some mastermind genious but his strategy of distraction

Reply to Kaleva (Reply #4)

Wed Dec 17, 2025, 07:13 PM

3 hrs ago

has always been his go to move when he's in trouble. That's the only move he has in his playbook but for some reason Liberals and Democrats fall for it every single time.

mwmisses4289

(3,029 posts)

7. Except this hasn't distracted from his failures with the economy,

Reply to Jspur (Original post)

Tue Dec 16, 2025, 09:09 AM

Yesterday

or the epstein files, or anything else. It might go to the back burner for a bit, but both epstein and the failing economy aren't going away.

LetMyPeopleVote

(174,021 posts)

9. MaddowBlog-On the Reiners' death, Trump should have quit while he was behind

Reply to Jspur (Original post)

Wed Dec 17, 2025, 06:55 PM

3 hrs ago

Facing criticism from the left, right and center, the president had a chance to make things better. He did not.

When Paul Pelosi was nearly murdered, and Trump responded with conspiracy theories and jokes, it reminded the world that Trump is a man devoid of grace and decency.

Targeting Rob Reiner, he did it again, digging a hole in the bottom of the barrel and falling even further.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-12-15T17:14:09.993Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/on-the-reiners-death-trump-should-have-quit-while-he-was-behind

But when the president responded to the deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, by attacking one of the victims, suggesting the filmmaker brought on his own slaying with his criticisms of Trump, something unusual happened: A variety of GOP voices, including some in Congress, agreed that the president had gone too far in his lack of basic human decency.

In a normal White House, a president would see the pushback from his own ostensible allies and realize he’d made a mistake (although in a normal White House, the comment never would have happened in the first place). In this White House, Trump acted as if he’d never heard the old expression about quitting while behind.

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.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-12-15T20:48:56.863Z

At an unrelated event in the Oval Office, a reporter reminded the president that “a number of Republicans” had denounced his statement related to Reiner and asked, “Do you stand by that post?”

The smart move would have been for Trump to dodge the question and change the subject. He did not, however, make the smart move.

“I wasn’t a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned,” the president said, referring to himself in 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.”

For good measure, the Republican added, “He became like a deranged person, Trump derangement syndrome. 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.”.....

Instead, let’s focus on the fact that Trump welcomed an avalanche of criticism from the left, right and center by condemning a celebrated artist immediately after learning of his death and, given an opportunity to make things better, made a conscious decision to make things worse.

Trump is who he appears to be: a small and petty man, incapable of empathy or grace, obsessed with his grievances, unaware of what it means to be “presidential” and unable to control his worst instincts.

lame54

(39,131 posts)

11. No strategy here...

Reply to Jspur (Original post)

Wed Dec 17, 2025, 07:58 PM

2 hrs ago

He's just a callous asshole

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