By
Margaret Hartmann,
senior editor for Intelligencer who has worked at New York since 2012
“Don’t speak ill of the dead” is once of the many norms Donald Trump does not observe. In his first term, he kept lashing out at John McCain well after the senator’s passing. Last year, the president responded to Rob Reiner’s murder with a deranged Truth Social post that seemed to blame the acclaimed director for his own death. When Robert Mueller passed in March, Trump said, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.”
Even when a friend dies, Trump has trouble simply saying something nice about them. For example, he used Jesse Jackson’s passing as an opportunity to insist he’s not racist — and insult Barack Obama.
