The End of “The Donald Trump Horror Story” in Master of Horror Stephen King’s Mind
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, horror author Stephen King described Donald Trump’s presidency as a “horror story” in an interview with The Guardian, during which he answered several questions from the paper’s readers.
The 77-year-old author of The Shining and It, who often criticizes Trump on social media, was asked what ending he imagines for Trump’s America:
“I think it could be impeachment — which, in my view, is a good ending. I’d very much like him to retire, let’s put it that way. A bad ending would be a third presidential term where he’s completely in control of things. Either way, it’s a horror story. Trump is a horror story, isn’t he?”
Trump has been impeached twice by the U.S. House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate both times. The first was in 2019, when he was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress; the second was in 2021, when he was accused of inciting insurrection after his supporters stormed the Capitol.
This week, the 42nd U.S. president deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, D.C., in an effort to fulfill his promise of making the capital “the safest city in the world.” Democrats, however, criticized the move, noting that crime rates in the city have statistically declined. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, for her part, called the decision “authoritarian” and urged local communities to “step up” and “protect home rule.”
In another part of the interview, King admitted that book signings are a “hardship” for him, explaining that he sometimes prefers to slip into bookstores unnoticed to sign copies in private:
“I don’t like book signings because you can’t sign for everybody. On my last book tour, I signed 400 books which were randomly distributed among a thousand people, so they only had a chance of getting one. But it’s better than facing an endless line of people, some of them carrying two or three books. That’s hard.”
When asked if he thinks the series Stranger Things resembles his own novels, King replied:
“Not as much as other people do. I think the Duffer Brothers give me more credit than I deserve. Like a lot of talented people, they grew up with my work. They read a lot of Stephen King when they were young, were influenced, and thought, ‘We want to make something like this.’ But they’re very talented, and the story they’ve created goes beyond Stephen King. Much of it belongs to the Duffers. It’s a good series. I’ve seen all the episodes. I like it a lot.”
