Stephen King Says Trump is Scarier Than Any of His Horror Stories
When we’re referring to chillingly scary or even horribly terrifying subject matter, we’d like to think famed horror novelist Stephen King is a pro. That’s why it’s a bit alarming that the author would declare that Donald Trump’s presidency is scarier than anything he’s ever written. In a new video from NowThis News, the prolific storyteller did exactly that.
In the clip, the author was asked whether he thought the Donald Trump presidency was scarier than one of his novels, to which he replied, “Short answer to that is yes, I do. I do think it’s scarier.”
King then discussed the similarities of his 1979 novel The Dead Zone (which became a movie in 1983) to the current White House occupant. The sci-fi/thriller followed the rise of a “real estate con man” turned political demagogue.
“I was sort of convinced that it was possible that a politician would arise who was so outside the mainstream and so willing to say anything that he would capture the imaginations of the American people,” said King.
King explained how he never anticipated some of his storylines to become reality, for example, the story’s main character Greg Stillson was at first taken as a joke because of the unconventional political maneuvering he’d partake in at his rallies. Stillson had used bikers that supported him at his events to “make sure nobody heckled him”— a version of which basically takes place at Trump rallies today.
King then talked about how his idea for the story came to be, that it was more of his assessment of the American public at the time rather than a prediction, that leads him to believe that the people could one day be responsible for creating a Greg Stillson type.
“I know that American voters have always had a real attraction to outsiders with the same kind of right-wing ‘America First’ policy,” King said. “And if that reminds people of Trump, I can’t be sorry because it was a character that I wrote. It was a boogeyman of mine, and I never wanted to see him actually on the American political scene, but we do seem to have a Greg Stillson as president of the United States.”
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