Fox News hosts found themselves in a heated debate over former President Donald Trump’s controversial remarks concerning the tragic deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.

Rob Reiner, a 78-year-old acclaimed director, and Michele, aged 70, were discovered fatally stabbed in their Los Angeles residence on Sunday. Their son, 32-year-old Nick Reiner, has been detained on murder charges and is currently held without bail.

The uproar began when Trump took to Truth Social, where he insensitively commented that Reiner was afflicted with a “mind crippling disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome.” He further criticized the esteemed director as being “very bad for our country.”

This sparked a lively discussion on Fox News’ The Five, where hosts Greg Gutfeld and Harold Ford Jr. found themselves on opposing sides of the issue. While Gutfeld attempted to rationalize Trump’s words, Ford openly criticized them.

“You don’t have to agree with everything he says,” Gutfeld remarked. “For me, Trump’s words are separate from his actions. I can dislike or even detest his comments, but understand that in his mind, he’s reacting to someone who compared him to Hitler and targeted him. He simply doesn’t like Reiner,” Gutfeld explained.

‘If it were me, I would go, like, ‘I’m sorry he’s dead.’ But he can’t let that go. We don’t have to like it,’ continued the Fox host, shrugging. ‘I just look at the deeds. But I get why you’re upset.’ 

Ford Jr. pushed back, stating that conservatives need to acknowledge that Trump’s response to the gruesome murder was simply ‘wrong.’

‘If Joe Biden had said this about anybody, I would’ve attacked this and said he’s completely wrong,’ the Democratic ex-congressman said. ‘It’s wrong, and we should be able to call out what’s right from wrong, and that’s wrong what he did.’

Ford Jr. pushed back, stating that conservatives need to acknowledge that Trump’s response to the gruesome murder was simply ‘wrong’

‘I think the thing is, you don’t have to like the things that he says all the time. It is why, in my filter, Trump is always ‘words’ versus ‘deeds.’ I don’t have to like what he says. In fact, I can hate what he says. But I can also think in his brain, he is going, ‘This guy compared me to Hitler. He put a target on my back. I don’t like him,” Gutfeld argued.

Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, 70 (pictured together in 2023), were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home on Sunday

Hollywood celebrities and Republicans pushed back on Trump’s vicious statement, with some calling it ‘disgusting and vile.’

But the President seemed undeterred in his criticism of the late director.

When pressed by a reporter in the Oval Office about his previous statement, he said: ‘Well, I wasn’t a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person. As far as Trump was concerned.

‘I think he hurt himself, career-wise, he became like a deranged person, [with] 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.’

Trump also accused Reiner of pushing the ‘Russia hoax’, the allegation that the President was compromised by the Kremlin during his first term.

He wrote that Reiner, a ‘once very talented movie director and comedy star,’ passed away, ‘reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease’ he calls TDS – or Trump Derangement Syndrome. 

The term is used by conservatives to describe disdain for the Republican President.

Reiner was the Emmy-winning star of the sitcom All in the Family who went on to direct films including When Harry Met Sally… and The Princess Bride. He was an outspoken liberal activist for decades. 

An aerial view shows the couple’s home in Brentwood, LA, where they were found dead

Michele was a photographer, movie producer and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. They had been married for 36 years.

Three months ago, Nick was photographed with his parents and siblings at the premiere of his father’s film Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues.

He had spoken publicly of his struggles with addiction, cycling in and out of treatment facilities with bouts of homelessness in between through his teen years. 

The father and son explored – and seemed to improve – their relationship through the making of the 2016 film, Being Charlie.

Nick co-wrote and Reiner directed the film about the struggles of an addicted son and a famous father. It was not autobiographical but included several elements of their lives.

‘It forced us to understand ourselves better than we had,’ Reiner told the AP in 2016. ‘I told Nick while we were making it, I said, ‘You know it doesn’t matter, whatever happens to this thing, we won already’.’