“Scarier Than Fiction” — Stephen King says Trump will go down in history like a nightmare nobody admits voting for
Stephen King has offered his take on how history will remember Donald Trump’s presidency, suggesting that in the decades ahead, many Americans will try to distance themselves from ever supporting him.
The bestselling author, who has often spoken out against Trump and once described his time in office as a “horror story,” compared the phenomenon to the way people falsely claim to have witnessed historic moments.
“There’s a story about the home run that was heard around the world,” King told the paper, referring to Bobby Thomson’s legendary 1951 home run that clinched the National League pennant for the New York Giants.
“There are … 10s of thousands of people who will say, ‘I saw [Thomson] hit that home run,’ and there were only, like, 5,000 people in the stands that day,” King explained. “So I think the opposite is true [with Trump]. Twenty or 30 years down the line, when I’ll be dead and you’ll be old, I think a lot of people are going to say, ‘Well, I never voted for Trump.’”
When asked if he considers how many of his readers may have supported Trump, King was direct: “I’m aware of it. There’s never been, you know, an organised boycott.”
He added: “I feel I have an obligation to say what I think and be clear about it. It’s a question, like the song says, ‘Which side are you on?’”
King’s 1979 novel The Dead Zone is frequently cited as prophetic, with its central character, Greg Stillson, a Bible salesman-turned-politician, drawing massive crowds before a psychic envisions him becoming president. The story has fueled speculation that King anticipated Trump’s rise, but the author himself dismissed the idea.
“If I wrote this in a book in 1965 … if it got published at all, it would be published as an allegory, like Animal Farm,” he said.
Looking at the present, King argued: “Nobody would have believed where we are today, with Gestapo agents in the street – they call themselves ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], but they’re basically guys that are armed, they are wearing masks, they have huge amounts of money to spend and they are everywhere.” The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
During a Guardian interview where readers submitted questions, King was asked what ending he would craft for Trump-era America. His reply: “I think it would be impeachment – which, in my view, would be a good ending. I would love to see him retired, let’s put it that way. The bad ending would be that he gets a third term and takes things over completely.”
He concluded: “It’s a horror story either way. Trump is a horror story, isn’t he?”
The horror master is well positioned to judge. With classics such as Carrie (1974), The Shining (1977), and It (1986) among his most acclaimed works—all adapted for film or television—King remains one of the most influential writers in modern fiction.
His latest novel, The Life of Chuck, is now a feature film starring Tom Hiddleston, while two additional adaptations are on the way: The Long Walk, directed by Francis Lawrence of The Hunger Games fame, and The Running Man, an Edgar Wright project starring Glen Powell.
