Stephen King's Most Brutal Attacks Against Donald Trump Over The Years

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It's astonishing that the majority of Americans elected President Donald Trump — twice. At least, that's how acclaimed horror novelist Stephen King feels anyway. From Trump's whiny social media meltdowns to the president's threats to run for a third term, he sure is keeping pundits on their toes. King is hardly impressed with the divisive politician's performance, and he was pretty outspoken about his distaste for Trump from the moment he first made the White House his home in 2017. In May, King took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to voice his concern over Trump's conduct, penning, "That this guy has his finger on the nuclear trigger is worse than any horror story I ever wrote." Given the author's ability to scare the living daylights out of his readers, that was really saying something. 

The Republican politician's first term was terrifying and chaotic for countless citizens but, unfortunately, the majority of voters decided they wanted an encore in 2024, and elected Trump once again. In a 2018 tweet, King urged his followers to vote for the Democratic Party in the midterm elections, making his political stance crystal clear. Meanwhile, he didn't mince words when asked about the divisive leader during an interview with NowThis Impact in 2019. When King was asked whether he considered Trump's presidency more frightening than his novels, he responded, "Short answer to that is, yes I do." 

The legendary writer discussed his 1979 novel "The Dead Zone" in particular, and the similarities between what transpired in the book and the rise of Trump's popularity in the political sphere. Its storyline is, in many ways, eerily similar, which has led to speculation that King is clairvoyant (the horror icon confirmed that he isn't). One thing King is, however, is brutally honest about what he thinks of Trump. 

Donald Trump has famously claimed he's better-looking than people that, frankly, he has no business comparing himself to. Stephen King, meanwhile, has made it clear that he considers the divisive politician rather unattractive. "George Orwell said the face you show the world at 50 is the face you deserve. Take a good look at Donald Trump's. It's the puffy, pouch-eyed face of an aging satyr," the bestselling author snarked on X in November 2025. Trump's appearance isn't the only thing King has criticized, however. He's also taken jabs at the controversial politician's personality and achievements too. 

While speaking to The Times in 2022, King got pretty candid when it came to his thoughts on Trump's first term. "I happen to think that Trump was a horrible president and is a horrible person. I think he actually engaged in criminal behavior and, certainly, I felt that he was a sociopath who tried to overturn the American democracy not out of any political wish of his own but because he could not admit that he had lost," the horror icon surmised. 

King reiterated his position in a 2025 interview with The Guardian, voicing his hope that Trump would get impeached at some point while also raising his concerns about the divisive leader's frequent claims that he would consider running for a third term (which the Constitution obviously prohibits). As King mused, "Trump is a horror story, isn't he?"

Donald Trump's precious tariffs have been a hot topic of conversation ever since he resumed office in 2025. As the president sent markets into freefall with his antics, economists warned that Trump misunderstood the impact the tariffs would have on the United States. While he claimed they would give the economy a massive boost, experts clarified that the complete opposite was true. "Virtually all economists think that the impact of the tariffs will be very bad for America and for the world," Joseph Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia University, told the Century Foundation, adding, "They will almost surely be inflationary." 

Stephen King, while merely a novelist, seemed to also have this concept down pat, unlike Trump. The "Misery" author took to X after the president wreaked havoc with his tariffs in April 2025 to point out, "Trump is ruining the economy with his stupid tariffs." While some commenters implored King to stay in his lane, plenty of others agreed with his assessment.

It doesn't take much to get under Donald Trump's skin, but Stephen King managed to agitate the president so much during his first term that he blocked him on X. It was the wrong thing to do since Trump being so obviously affected by King's barbs only gave the author more to work with. While making an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," in May 2018, King addressed the divisive politician's decision to block him a couple of months prior. A federal appeals court ruled that it wasn't lawful for Trump to do so because he used his personal account to discuss and share information about matters concerning the government, which meant that, by law, all Americans should have viewing rights to his posts, so to speak. 

As for which of his posts got him blocked, King quipped, "I might have said he had his head somewhere where a certain yoga position would be necessary to get it there," adding, "I blocked him from seeing my next movie, which was 'IT,' so no balloons for Donald Trump." The whole conversation was hilarious, with the author reasoning that he wasn't all that interested in getting unblocked, really, because he was far from eager to read the controversial leader's posts regardless. 

Trump blocking the acclaimed novelist continued to be a widely-circulated joke, and in July 2018, King took to X again to point out that, despite the court's ruling, the president still hadn't unblocked him. "Blabbermouth Don has not unblocked me. Yet somehow I soldier on, though my film of tears occasionally causes me to stagger," he joked at the time. 

Donald Trump blocking Stephen King on X only invigorated the horror icon's wrath towards him. Trump is known for christening his opponents with hostile nicknames, so the "Shining" author took it upon himself to bestow one of his own upon the divisive politician: "Blabbermouth Don." A fitting moniker, given Trump's penchant for rambling speeches that often see him going completely off topic. In one 2018 post on X, King voiced sharp criticism for his conduct, pointing out that the president's incendiary comments were only making matters worse for a country that was already woefully divided. In the same post, he referred to Trump by the scathing nickname and also appeared to take a jab at the fact that Trump never served in the military because of a (questionable) diagnosis of bone spurs. 

"If you check his service record...oh wait, Blabbermouth Don chickensh*tted his way out of that, too," King wrote. In January 2018, he called for Trump's impeachment: "Legislators, you need to impeach Blabbermouth Don or force him to resign before he kills us all. He is no longer competent to serve as Chief Executive, if he ever was." The author also hit him where it hurt when he made a tongue-in-cheek comment about the former "Apprentice" host bragging about his nuclear button to North Korean President Kim Jong Un. 

Trump famously took to X to boast, "[My button is] a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!" King clapped back, "When Blabbermouth Don talks about who has the bigger nuclear button, I think we all know what he's talking about. It's your basic d*ck-measuring contest. Sad!" Trump has famously been very conscious of gossip about his manhood, and we bet he didn't appreciate this reference.

Donald Trump is known for talking himself up. In fact, during a series of tweets in January 2018, the president praised both himself and his abilities, claiming, "My two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart." Trump also patted himself on the back for winning the election in 2016 even though he didn't have a preceding political career, touting, "I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!" The controversial leader notably called himself a "stable genius" once again at the 2018 NATO Summit (via YouTube), and in 2019, while making an address, referred to himself as "an extremely stable genius," per Politico. 

Needless to say, Trump clearly considers himself to be this generation's Einstein. Naturally, Stephen King disagrees, letting his millions of X followers know by arguing, "Anyone who has to call himself a genius...isn't." As a Trump presidency started to seem all the more likely as the 2016 elections loomed, the author expressed his horror at the prospect during the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., and took a jab at his communication skills while he was at it. "Listening to his speeches is like listening to a piano fall down stairs. It's all dissonance and no music," King said, per The Guardian. 

It was an apt description and, in January 2026, the acclaimed novelist dealt another low blow to the president's intelligence and overall literacy by taking to X to express his frustration with Trump (and likely the constant stream of Truth Social posts authored by the commander-in-chief). "You have a president who can't spell, doesn't have any grasp of basic grammar, and doesn't read," King wrote. He's not wrong.