A prominent conservative voice has delivered one of the most scathing public rebukes yet of President Donald Trump, accusing him of debasing the office of the presidency and crossing lines that should never be crossed.
Bret Stephens, a longtime conservative columnist for The New York Times, unleashed the blistering critique after Trump attacked the late actor and director Rob Reiner, even as the country was still processing news of his death.
Stephens made clear that writing about Trump was something he no longer wished to do. But, he argued, silence was no longer an option.
He described the president as a “petty, hollow, squalid, overstuffed man,” before escalating his condemnation even further. According to Stephens, Trump is “the most loathsome human being ever to occupy the White House.”
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Stephens focused on Trump’s Truth Social post, in which the president referred to Reiner as “deranged,” despite reports that the filmmaker had been found dead in his home after allegedly being fatally stabbed by his son.
The columnist said the post captured Trump at his worst. He described it as a mix of “preposterous grandiosity, obsessive self-regard, and gratuitous spite.”
For Stephens, this moment was not a slip or a lapse in judgment. It was, he argued, the clearest example yet of the lasting damage Trump has inflicted on public life.
“This,” Stephens wrote, “is where history will record that the deepest damage by the Trump presidency was done.”
From there, the criticism widened.
Stephens painted a bleak picture of Trump’s second term, describing a political culture shaped by constant self-praise, public flattery, and theatrical displays of power.
He likened cabinet meetings to scenes of forced devotion, compared executive order ceremonies to imperial performances, and mocked what he called Trump’s obsession with being celebrated as a global peacemaker.
In his view, these rituals are not harmless. They actively corrode national standards.
“Our standards as a nation are being debased,” Stephens warned. “Our manners barbarized.”
Still, Stephens was careful to separate Trump from conservatism itself.
He pointed to actor James Woods, a vocal conservative, who mourned Reiner respectfully in a recent Fox News interview. Woods called Reiner “a great patriot,” despite their political differences.
That contrast mattered.
Stephens argued that disagreement does not excuse cruelty, especially in moments of grief.
“Good people and good nations do not stomp on the grief of others,” he wrote. “Politics is meant to end at the graveside.”
He described that principle not as politeness, but as a foundational rule of any civilized society.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
