Slain Hollywood heavyweight Rob Reiner was already wielding actual political energy even earlier than turning into an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump — operating a behind-the-scenes operation that reshaped California coverage, took on Huge Tobacco and steered billions in taxpayer {dollars}.
Trump lit the fuse once more Monday — unloading on the slain actor-director on Reality Social as a determine who had “pushed individuals CRAZY” together with his relentless opposition to the Republican president.
However Reiner’s political firepower didn’t begin with Trump. It goes again to 1998, when he bulldozed Proposition 10 by way of California in a bare-knuckle poll struggle — jacking up cigarette taxes by 50 cents a pack and rerouting billions into early-childhood packages for youths ages 0 to five.
It wasn’t a conceit undertaking. It didn’t make him a dime.
“Fortress Rock didn’t revenue from this,” stated Michael Trujillo, Reiner’s former political aide, who labored for him from 2002 to 2006 and on totally different tasks for years after. “Rob misplaced time together with his household. Misplaced time making motion pictures — the place he really made cash. He did this as a result of he believed it was the correct factor to do. This was his ardour.”
Reiner’s pitch was blunt: hit cigarette corporations the place it harm, cut back smoking, and spend money on the years mind scientists say decide every part that comes subsequent.
“He used to say, ‘If you recognize one thing to be true, have the means to do one thing about it, and don’t — it’s best to go to jail,’” Trujillo informed The Submit.
Voters purchased it.
Prop. 10 handed — and cracked open a large, everlasting funding stream. Out of it got here First 5 California, formally referred to as the California Kids and Households Fee, together with 58 county commissions charged with spending tobacco tax {dollars} on early childhood growth.
Then-Gov. Grey Davis made it clear who was in cost. “You bought this factor handed — you’re going to be the chairman,” Trujillo recalled Davis telling Reiner.
Instantly, the man behind “Seinfeld” and “When Harry Met Sally” was operating a taxpayer-funded coverage empire.
Working out of Fortress Rock Leisure’s Beverly Hills headquarters — the identical workplaces the place sitcoms have been made — Reiner oversaw statewide coverage, press technique, messaging, and funding priorities. Trujillo, barely in his early 20s, had his personal workplace simply steps from Reiner’s.
“I used to be 22 or 23 years previous, with my very own workplace at Fortress Rock,” Trujillo stated. “That alone was insane.”
As soon as a month, Reiner and his employees flew by personal aircraft from Santa Monica to Sacramento for fee conferences. The remainder of the time was relentless: press conferences up and down the state, conferences, media dealing with, and fixed protection of the cigarette tax.
“He didn’t dabble,” Trujillo stated. “He ran it.”
The entry was staggering.
“I noticed each political stripe come by way of these workplaces,” Trujillo stated. “From my desk, I might look down the hallway and see Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator Chris Dodd, former Vice President Al Gore — each possible congressmember, state rep, and L.A. politician. It was an unimaginable front-row seat. An unimaginable classroom in politics.”
Reiner used that entry aggressively — internet hosting fundraisers, together with the primary fundraiser for then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s re-election, and fielding calls from senators and presidential campaigns on the lookout for his ear.
“Through the years, senators and presidential candidates would name me asking find out how to attain Rob,” Trujillo stated. “I all the time made the connections.”
Whereas different celebrities gravitated to splashier causes, Reiner stayed locked on early childhood growth — a distinct segment coverage house few voters understood and fewer politicians touched.
One in every of First 5’s first headline-grabbing strikes was the state-issued “Package for New Mother and father” — a free bundle mailed to new mothers and dads throughout California, translated into eight languages, filled with books and supplies explaining every part from six-week milestones to why infants cry.
“At press conferences, he’d say, ‘Your mother and father stated you didn’t include an instruction handbook — however now you do,” Trujillo recalled.
The road caught. So did this system.
Huge Tobacco didn’t again off. Firms launched repeated ballot-box counterattacks, making an attempt to repeal or weaken the tax. Every time, Reiner went again on offense — barnstorming the state, warning voters, daring them to undo what they’d handed.
They didn’t. Each repeal effort failed.
Reiner pushed the combat past California by way of his nonprofit, the I Am Your Youngster Basis, which translated mind science into sensible steerage for fogeys nationwide. The inspiration landed a $1 million grant from the Invoice & Melinda Gates Basis to gas a nationwide public-awareness marketing campaign.
“Analysis reveals that the early years are exceptionally essential ones in laying a agency basis for long-term success,” Reiner stated on the time. “Mother and father are hungry for high quality data associated to youngsters’s wholesome growth.”
For many who labored with him, the politics by no means felt performative.
“I noticed the entry Rob Reiner had — and the way he used his voice, his cash, and his energy,” Trujillo stated.
After Reiner’s dying, Trujillo posted a uncooked tribute on X, calling him “the very best mentor” and “a tremendous boss,” and describing his spouse, Michele, as “his rock.”
“However the classes he taught me are lifelong,” Trujillo stated. “I like the person.”
