Stephen King has lashed out at X owner, tech billionaire and richest person in the world Elon Musk for his support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Musk has lent his support to Trump for November’s US election, after previously backing Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy, even going as far as to give the real-estate tycoon and former Celebrity Apprentice host a lengthy interview on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
In a fresh post on 3 September, Musk retweeted polling data claiming that Trump could still triumph over his Democratic rival Kamala Harris and may have a slight lead in the key swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia.
In response, Musk wrote: “A Trump victory is essential to defence of freedom of speech, secure borders, safe cities and sensible spending!”
King, who has had run-ins with Musk in the past, had some choice words for the 53-year-old businessman turned right-wing political activist. The author brutally told him: “You’re far too bright to swallow this man’s bulls**t.”
Back in April 2023, King was ‘trolled’ by Musk after X/Twitter introduced a new policy that wiped all pre-existing blue ticks on verified accounts and would now only be given to those who subscribed to the site.
However, author King, who has been a vocal critic of Musk’s plan to remove free verification status, was confused to see he still had a blue tick as of Thursday evening.
The author tweeted: “My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.” In response to King, Musk wrote: “You’re welcome namaste.”
Musk and Trump aren’t the only conservative figures who King has set his sights on in recent days.
The Shining and Shawshank Redemption author gave a blunt response to discovering that a multitude of his books are now banned from school libraries in Florida, a law which is now being challenged by six major book publishers.
The 76-year-old writer said in response: “Florida has banned 23 pf [sic] my books. What the f***?”
Elsewhere, Musk has landed himself in hot water after he shared an AI-generated image of Harris as a communist leader. In retaliation, critics of Musk have since made their own AI images of himself and Trump as both communist and Nazi leaders.
