Los Angeles – Hollywood heavyweight Rob Reiner, the director behind classics like The Princess Bride, has heaped posthumous praise on Joe Biden’s presidency, declaring him “one of the most consequential presidents in American history.” The effusive endorsement, shared in a social media post following Biden’s death on October 15, 2025, from complications of a long illness, marks a stark pivot from Reiner’s earlier calls for the then-82-year-old to step aside during the 2024 campaign. “Biden will go down as one of the most consequential Presidents in American history. We love you Joe,” Reiner wrote, lauding Biden’s “extraordinary service” amid a wave of celebrity tributes.
Biden’s tenure, bookended by a bruising 2024 reelection loss to Donald Trump and his passing at 83, was a tapestry of triumphs and tribulations. Supporters, including Reiner, trumpet the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which poured billions into roads, bridges, and broadband, alongside the Inflation Reduction Act’s $369 billion in clean energy investments—slashing carbon emissions 40% by 2030. “He rebuilt America from the ground up,” Reiner reflected, echoing Barack Obama’s sentiment that Biden was a “decency machine” who navigated COVID’s chaos, vaccinating 270 million and authoring the CHIPS Act to onshore semiconductor production.
Yet critics, emboldened by Biden’s 2024 defeat, paint a grimmer portrait. The border crisis saw 2.5 million encounters in 2023 alone, fueling accusations of lax enforcement. Inflation peaked at 9.1% in 2022, eroding wages, while the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021 claimed 13 U.S. lives and stranded allies. Reiner’s reversal, after urging Biden to “stop fucking around” post-debate in July 2024, draws eye-rolls from conservatives. “From ‘step down’ to ‘consequential’—Hollywood’s amnesia is peak,” quipped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
As Biden’s state funeral approaches, Reiner’s ode captures a divided eulogy: Visionary reformer to admirers, enabler of decline to detractors. In an era of polarized legacies, Biden’s story— from Scranton kid to Oval Office—endures as consequential, for better or worse. History, ever the impartial judge, will render its verdict.
