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Pro wrestling legend Mick Foley said he is cutting ties with World Wrestling Entertainment over its “close relationship” with President Donald Trump.
Foley announced on Tuesday that Trump’s reaction to the murder of Rob Reiner was the “final straw” for him. The acclaimed film director and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found stabbed to death in their Southern California home on Sunday. Their son Nick Reiner has been charged with first-degree murder.
Rob Reiner was a longtime liberal activist and vocal critic of Trump, who responded by accusing him of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which the president said led to the Reiners’ deaths.
On his Instagram account, the 60-year-old Foley posted that so long as Trump is in office and the WWE is on friendly terms with the president, he will not represent the company:
PARTING WAYS WITH WWE
While I have been concerned about WWE‘s close relationship with Donald Trump for several months — especially in light of his administration’s ongoing cruel and inhumane treatment of immigrants (and pretty much anyone who “looks like an immigrant”) — reading the President’s incredibly cruel comments in the wake of Rob Reiner’s death is the final straw for me.
I no longer wish to represent a company that coddles a man so seemingly void of compassion as he marches our country towards autocracy. Last night, I informed @WWE talent relations that I would not be making any appearances for the company as long as this man remains in office.
Additionally, I will not be signing a new Legends deal when my current one expires in June. I love WWE, will always treasure my time with them, and I am deeply appreciative for all the opportunities they afforded me. But, in the words of Popeye the sailor, “I stands all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more.”
Linda McMahon, the wife of WWE founder Vince McMahon, is Trump’s Education Secretary, and she served as head of the Small Business Administration in the president’s first term. Vince McMahon is friends with Trump.
On Monday, Trump wrote of Reiner:
A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. 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, sometimes referred to as TDS. 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. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!
The president’s remarks drew widespread condemnation across the political spectrum.
