Author Stephen King has long been outspoken about his distaste for former U.S. President Donald Trump. For example, King called Trump a "horrible president and horrible person" during an interview published by The Sunday TImes in August 2022. But did King once say it was hard to believe there was ever a world leader as dumb as the former president?
That's what viral social media posts have claimed for years. On Sept. 17, 2023, a X (formerly known as Twitter) post said, "Retweet if you agree with Stephen King."
Retweet if you agree with Stephen King. pic.twitter.com/kFKhwTozf8
— ᗰᗩƳᖇᗩ ℙ?????????? (@LePapillonBlu2) September 17, 2023
Attached to the post was an image that showed King next to a quote that said:
Hard to believe there was ever a world leader as dumb as Donald Trump. Can't spell, can't read, has never managed anything approaching an original thought. His brain is like a radio playing at top volume, but between stations.
The quote was correctly attributed to King. It was posted to his X account on Feb. 28, 2020. It read:
Hard to believe there was ever a world leader as dumb as Donald Trump. Can't spell, can't read, has never managed anything approaching an original thought. His brain is like a radio playing at top volume, but between stations.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) February 29, 2020
We found the same image attached to social media posts on other platforms, like Reddit, TikTok, and Facebook. Similar images claiming King had said the quote were found on Facebook from as early as 2020.
"Occupy Democrats," a liberal advocacy group, also posted the quote to the group's Facebook page soon after King posted it on X:
We've previously fact-checked other claims about King, like a satirical post that said his book sales dropped by 70% after he "went woke."