Since the tragic murder of vaunted filmmaker and activist Rob Reiner, the culture warriors have been feasting. Shortly after the director’s death, president Donald Trump himself took to social media to blast him as a “tortured and struggling artist,” adding that Reiner was a “deranged person as far as Trump is concerned.”
Trump’s incendiary comments were condemned by a broad base of celebrities and government officials like, in a backlash ranging from Whoopi Goldberg to Marjorie Taylor Greene to Joe Rogan. Also getting on the action was Jack White, Detroit-born indie rock musician made famous for his role in the White Stripes.
At the time, White slammed Trump on Instagram over the comments, calling the president a “disgusting, vile, egomaniac, loser, [and] child.” As musicians go, White has a bit of a reputation for jumping into public feuds, but even he probably couldn’t have imagined what would happen next.
Two weeks after White jumped in to defend Reiner’s legacy — an eternity in the fast-moving culture wars — Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett threw himself into the mosh pit. Reposting what was clearly an AI-generated video of White calling potential fans who are also Trump supporters “fascists,” Burchett wrote on X-formerly-Twitter that “that cute little girl from the Addams Family got really ugly and angry.”
That cute little girl from the Addams Family got really ugly and angry. https://t.co/94wbCWFu2w — Tim Burchett (@timburchett) December 29, 2025
In response, White came back at Burchett, calling him one of Trump’s “lackeys and bootlicks.”
“Can you believe that a US congressman, that’s right, a CONGRESSMAN (from my state no less), a once hallowed and respected position in our society, would repost an AI generated video, containing a false comment that I never said and refuted (without researching that I might add) and like a 10 year old on a playground, add to it attempted insults to my physical appearance?” White roared on Instagram. “What kind of joke are we all living in now?”
“It’s really sad how embarrassing our leadership has become, I so wish the average American conservative could have a conversation with any intelligent people in other countries around the world, just for one brief moment, and actually see just what a joke our government (and by proxy our country) has become,” the musician continued. “All down to giving power and a soapbox to low class playground bullies the likes of trump and Congressman burchett.”
When a user on X pointed out that Burchett had fallen for an AI deepfake, the congressman attempted to brush it off, responding “you mean it’s not the girl from the Addams family?”
More on celebrities: Grok Is Making Wildly Contradictory Claims About Rob Reiner’s Death
... continue reading