Stephen King has a knack for sending shivers down our spines with just a few well-arranged words, but perhaps some of his truly scariest sentences come from his social media feed rather than his books. The horror maestro is an active political commentator on X, never being shy to air his feelings about both presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
King has earned a lot of points for understanding that Trump is as about as suitable for office as Pennywise the Clown, but on the other hand he’s also courted controversy by joining the many Hollywood folks who are publicly withdrawing their support for Biden in the wake of his performance at the first election debate, in which he was about as lively as someone’s animal companion who emerged from Pet Sematary.
His latest warning for the future of America, though, is something that honestly everyone can probably agree on, whatever side of the political divide they call home. Forget The Shining, these five words are perhaps the most unsettling thing King has ever written. And the truest.
The terrifying tweet? It is simply thus: “I fear for my country.”
Anyone who doesn’t know what precipitated King to post this must’ve been living under a dome for the past few days. Given the many other tweets the author has had to say on the matter, it’s clear that King’s fear is based in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on July 13. Not only is it atrocious that the event took the life of someone in the crowd, we’re already seeing the signs of how the shooting will only intensify the polarization that already exists across the political landscape of the U.S.
Given that this is a man who has dreamed up 65 frequently nightmare-inducing novels about fear entities, haunted hotels, and whatever exactly is happening in Maximum Overdrive, we probably wouldn’t typically say this, but in this case: we know what Stephen King is thinking. And we share his misery.
