Stephen King Doubles Down on Trump Supreme Court Comments

Stephen King has proven that he isn't backing down when it comes to criticizing the Supreme Court.

On July 1, the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have immunity for official acts conducted while in office, but not for unofficial acts. The ruling was related to the Department of Justice's election interference case, in which Donald Trump is accused of attempting to overturn the 2020 general election.

Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said the case is part of a political witch hunt aimed at derailing his presidential bid. Newsweek emailed spokespeople for King, as well as a Supreme Court spokesperson, on Monday.

Author King previously blasted the Supreme Court after its decision and also called out three conservative Supreme Court Justices for allegedly considering Trump to be "above the law" in a viral social-media post.

Now he has taken to X, formerly Twitter, to slam the Supreme Court once again, as well as criticize Project 2025. Developed by policy group The Heritage Foundation, this proposes to install Republican loyalists at every level of federal departments, if Trump is reelected in November.

"Trump's cronies are planning what amounts to a fascist state, and the Supreme Court is clearing the way for them. This should concern conservatives as well as liberals," King posted online. This was in response to a post that read: "You really need to be more bothered by Project 2025 than the debate."

At the time of writing, King's X post had been viewed more than 805,000 times. When Newsweek approached Trump's campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, for comment, he said: "Who cares what Stephen King has to say? He's irrelevant."

The author's opinions tend to be divisive, and this one was no different. Many agreed with King, with one person writing: "When all a party can do is offer fear and panic instead of solutions, we can safely assume they have no solutions."

"You're preaching to the Choir Mister! This is what they've been building up to for some time now," someone else wrote.

A third person added: "MAGA [Make America Great Again] is sleepwalking."

However, others criticized King, with one X user commenting: "Save your horror fiction for your novels Stephen."

"Show us where Trump has endorsed or mentioned Project 2025. I'll continue to wait while you continue your fear mongering. Stephen King is not a political advocate, he's a fictional writer," said another.

Project 2025 was developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation, with input from dozens of conservative-leaning groups and former Trump administration officials. The 900-page document proposes repealing policies of the previous administration within the first six months of a second Trump term, including environmental regulations and social policies.

Trump has sought to distance himself from the initiative, previously writing on his Truth Social platform: "I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."

But Trump allies have commented on the project in the past and appear to suggest the presumptive Republican presidential candidate must have known about it, as per resurfaced posts on social media. Kevin Roberts, currently president of the Heritage Foundation, has even credited Trump with creating Project 2025.

King is a vocal critic of Trump. In 2016, he was one of 450 writers to sign an open letter slamming the Republican's candidacy, and he has regularly criticized the politician on X.

In May, the author called Trump a "Crookedy-crook-crook-crook," after the real-estate magnate was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records, reportedly to hide "hush money" payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Daniels said that she and Trump had a one-night stand in 2006. The former president has denied the affair allegations and pleaded not guilty in the New York criminal trial.

Update 07/08/24, 07:41 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with a comment from Steven Cheung.