Trump's week in review: Pentagon worship service, year-end address to the nation

1. Trump draws pushback for his comments about Rob Reiner’s death

On Sunday, actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife were found stabbed to death in their California home. Trump reacted to the Reiners’ death in a Truth Social post Monday. While Trump expressed hope that the Reiners would “rest in peace” and described their death as a “very sad thing,” the social media post included a lengthy suggestion that Reiner’s outspoken criticism of the president played a role in his death.

“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,” Trump wrote. 

According to Trump, “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.”

Trump’s comments did not sit well with Christian conservative activists, who comprise an important part of his political base. Douglas Wilson, pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, denounced the president’s reaction to Reiner’s death as “grotesque” while Jenna Ellis, an attorney and outspoken Christian who worked for Trump during his first term, called his comments a “horrible example” that “should be condemned by everyone with any decency.”