Fox News hosts found themselves at odds over Donald Trump’s recent controversial remarks concerning the tragic death of Rob Reiner. The acclaimed director, aged 78, and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were discovered fatally stabbed in their Los Angeles residence on Sunday. Their 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is being detained without bail. The controversy ignited when Trump took to Truth Social on Monday, mocking Reiner as having a ‘mind crippling disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome’ and labeling him as ‘very bad for our country.’

This divisive topic sparked a heated discussion on The Five, featuring Greg Gutfeld defending Trump and Harold Ford Jr. criticizing him. Gutfeld argued, “You don’t always have to agree with what Trump says. In my view, Trump’s words are separate from his actions. I might detest his words, but I understand that in his mind, he might feel aggrieved by Reiner, who compared him to Hitler and painted a target on his back. If it were me, I’d simply say, ‘I’m sorry he’s dead.’ But Trump can’t let these things go. We may not like it, but I focus on his actions. I understand why people are upset.”

However, Ford Jr. countered, emphasizing that conservatives should recognize Trump’s reaction as simply “wrong.” The former Democratic congressman remarked, “If Joe Biden had made such a comment, I’d have criticized him as well. It’s important to distinguish right from wrong, and what Trump did was wrong.” The backlash against Trump’s remarks was swift, with Hollywood figures and Republicans alike condemning his comments as ‘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 ‘ Russiahoax’, 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. 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’.’