We’re just one day out from the jaw-dropping 2024 presidential debate, and like clockwork, one of Donald Trump’s most vocal detractors has come out to offer his assessment.
Stephen King, who has made a hilarious habit out of lambasting the former president, wasted no time sharing his opinion of the event, which was widely considered to be won by Kamala Harris. The author took to his least favorite platform, X, to shed light on the one thing the debate proved about Trump, regardless of his politics.
“Politics aside, America saw a man who has no business being near the levers of power,” the It author wrote. “Simply put, he’s crazy.” It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what King is referring to, since the 90-minute debate saw Trump deliver a seemingly endless array of moments that ranged from head-scratching to downright racially motivated.
Whether he was recirculating debunked claims about immigrants eating pets in Ohio, enduring a weak and caught-off-guard handshake from his opponent, or taking the bait from Harris on more than one occasion, the Republican candidate did many things that King might refer to as “crazy.” Oh, Trump was also posting cat memes on social media hours before the debate, and reiterated racist claims that Harris had decided to “turn Black.”
This searing assessment should perhaps be expected from the acclaimed author, given that he has never been shy about sharing his thoughts on Trump. Just yesterday, King took to X again to claim that ABC, who hosted the debate, allowed Trump “a disproportionate amount of time to mansplain” adding to an increasing volume of barbs directed at Trump that will soon be enough to constitute their own novel.
In the last few weeks alone, King has compared Trump’s way of governing to a “drunk 17-year-old in a Corvette,” criticized his disastrous interview with Elon Musk, and gone on a MAGA-converting spree with just a t-shirt and cap as armor.
King is far from the only celebrity to weigh in on the presidential debate. Mere hours after it finished, pop star Taylor Swift finally offered her official endorsement of Harris (with a call-out to cat ladies to boot), while Jimmy Kimmel spoofed Trump’s lackluster performance during his talk show monologue.
For her part, musician Bette Midler officially declared Harris the winner of the debate, while fellow singer Dionne Warwick said all Trump was doing was “yelling and shouting.”
Keke Palmer, Nick Offerman and Mark Ruffalo were also among those to revel in a Harris victory, but King fans will perhaps be most intrigued by the reaction of his newfound bestie, Mr. Luke Skywalker himself. “Him: We are a failing, 3rd-World nation!”, Mark Hamill wrote of Trump’s hyperbolic debate performance, “Her: Presidential.”
In other King news, the author recently attended the Toronto Film Festival premiere (where he was snapped with Hamill) of The Life of Chuck, a Tom Hiddleston-starring film based on King’s 2020 novella of the same name.