Since joining X, formerly Twitter, in 2013, Stephen King has been tweeting frequently. The iconic horror has never been shy about sharing its reviews with the world, but it’s not just its 7. 1 million fans who have taken notice.
King, 76, has made numerous enemies on the social network. A Democrat since 1970, King has had public feuds with several politicians, as well as feuds with several of his fellow authors.
Still, his mythical criticisms were limited to social media, and some of its most notorious consequences predate social media.
Here is the full list of King’s celebrity feuds.
The protagonist of The Shining shamelessly criticizes the former president. King was one of 450 writers who signed an open letter protesting Donald Trump’s candidacy in 2016, as their feud with the Republican politician dates back several years.
King criticizes the business mogul at X, formerly Twitter. Recent articles mock Trump’s speech about the Battle of Gettysburg in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, in which King calls the 77-year-old an “idiot,” as well as sharing his opinion on Trump’s criminal trial in New York.
The real estate mogul is accused of falsifying records to hide “hush money” invoices from adult film actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 general election. Daniels claims she and Trump had a one-night stand in 2006. Trump has denied the accusations and the accusations against him.
“If Trump were a black man, or a poor white man, and spoke like Trump, he would be in Rikers prison tonight,” King wrote in X in April, following reports that the Apprentice star had fallen asleep.
In March, King issued a warning to Americans, referring to Trump’s 2020 Georgia voter fraud case.
“If you voted for [President Joe] Biden in 2020 and this time you vote for Trump, keep this in mind: When Trump took office, he tried to borrow his vote from Biden by nullifying it and without effect,” King said. and his post received 1. 7 million views.
King only attacks Trump, but also his supporters, such as Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
In April, King dubbed the Republican “Moscow Marjorie” in X, after Greene criticized her Republican colleagues for passing a bill to Ukraine. The law promised the country $60 million in foreign currency as it continues to fight the Russian invasion.
However, this wasn’t the first time King had targeted Greene. The Misery also criticized Greene in January, after the politician said he approved of a partial government shutdown.
Greene retweeted an X message from journalist Joyce Karam that read: “SCOOP: Hundreds of U. S. government workers plan a strike Tuesday over Biden’s policies in Gaza. **22 agencies** involved. “
“Another explanation for why I would not possibly feel guilty about a government shutdown,” Greene wrote alongside the retweet. “Too many federal workers are just political activists. It will be a wonderful list to say goodbye to as soon as possible!”
King was quick to respond by asking Greene, “Do you still get paid, dear?”
In November, he accused Greene of sharing false facts about the war between Israel and Hamas.
“Israel is literally dominating its war against Hamas after being brutally attacked, killing thousands of innocent people, and a single US dollar has still been spent on this war,” the 50-year-old wrote in X. “Think about it. “
‘Are you tripping?'” King replied. We’ve been offering them guns and guns for decades. “
The dispute between King and the tech mogul began in October 2022, when Elon Musk bought Twitter and changed the name of the social network X.
“I liked Twitter more before Musk. Less controversy, more fun,” King posted at the time.
The Tesla CEO responded in a comment, telling King that he is “still a fan,” despite the comment. However, King also criticized Musk’s decision to rate users with $20 per month for verified status. In the past, the blue tick on your profile reserved for the official accounts of corporations and public figures.
“If this is instituted, it may not be like Enron anymore,” King said, though he is still an active user on the platform in May 2024. However, the director of The Green Mile continued to express his displeasure with the call. change, still calling the site Twitter.
This led to a public spat with Musk in February, when King posted, “Dear Elon: Twitter. Twitter, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. “
“you, you want to put your private logo on everything,” he added in a follow-up post a short time later. “Just because you bought it doesn’t mean you own it. “
The post went viral and was viewed more than 12. 4 million times. In response, Musk has just responded with the platform’s new logo, a double X.
In March 2023, King lashed out at Musk’s policies, with the billionaire at times fighting back. The writer remains a vocal critic of Musk, even though the 52-year-old SpaceX founder has been silent for the time being.
The confrontation between the two authors began in 2007, when King, after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Booksellers Association, criticized Patterson’s work.
King told reporters, “I don’t like him, I don’t respect his books because they’re all the same,” accusing the mystery of being stereotyped.
Patterson responded to a review of 1408, published on his online page that same year. The film is based on King’s 1999 short story about the same call about a haunted hotel room.
“Recently, Stephen King said he didn’t respect me,” Patterson wrote. “It doesn’t make much sense. I am an intelligent father, an intelligent husband; my crime is to promote millions of books. “
The dispute escalated in 2016, when Patterson announced an e-book The Assassination of Stephen King.
Reportedly, King stalked a character in the novel who embodied several of his own creations, but Patterson eventually left the project out of respect for King and his family and due to significant negative public reactions.
The feud between King and the podcaster erupted in May, after Bongino criticized Biden.
As a Biden supporter, King took the opportunity to laugh at Bongino. The Dark Half mocked X’s conservative political commentator, ridiculing his recent departure from Fox News.
Bongino in the past hosted Saturday night’s show Unfiltered. However, the 48-year-old severed ties with the network in May following a contract dispute, before launching his new podcast, The Dan Bongino Show.
Bongino responded, calling King a “damn one. “
“Yes, you’re right. Millions of listeners every day on a podcast while watching porn in your mother’s basement, longing for the days when other people didn’t give a damn about your idiot,” he wrote. loser of the task. “
The feud between King and the Harry Potter writer began in 2020, when King retweeted a post by Rowling shielding herself from accusations of transphobia. The Scot praised King in X, saying his “love” for him had reached “new heights”.
However, when a user asked King to explain his stance on transgenderArray, he replied, “Yes. Trans areArray”. This prompted Rowling to delete her positive post about King, and the 58-year-old also did not follow him online.
King addressed the complicated scenario in an interview with The Daily Beast in May 2021. King noted that although they had different opinions, he defended their right to have their opinions, even if he disagreed with them.
His feud with Kubrick is perhaps the most notorious of King’s disputes. The acclaimed and director first clashed in the early 1980s, when Kubrick acquired the rights to King’s 1977 horror classic, The Shining.
First, King was excited about Kubrick directing the adaptation because of his reputation as a master filmmaker. However, the Oscar-winning actor made several adjustments to the script that King deemed unnecessary.
They believed that Kubrick had lost the sense of the novel, omitting key themes, such as the importance of family, and focusing more on ambiguity and mental horror.
King was also not satisfied with Kubrick’s casting decisions. King thought Nicholson’s portrayal of Jack Torrance was too “manic” from the start, which did not allow for the character’s slow descent into madness as depicted in his novel.
She also didn’t like the characterization in the film of Wendy Torrance, played by Shelley Duvall, who, she said, was portrayed as weak and less witty than her literary counterpart.
In 1997, King wrote and produced his own television adaptation of The Shining. Although more faithful to the novel, the miniseries won mixed reviews, while Kubrick’s adaptation made film history.
The feud between King and Stephanie Meyer was sparked through a 2009 interview with USA Weekend, in which King unfavorably compared Twilight to J. K. Rowling.
“Rowling and Meyer speak directly to young people,” he said. “The real difference is that J. K. Rowling is a wonderful editor and Stephenie Meyer doesn’t know how to write. He doesn’t have a lot of talent. “
Unsurprisingly, the franchise’s loyal young fan base came to Meyer’s defense, however, the young adult never publicly responded to King’s comments.
Still, King has remained true to his positions over the years, reiterating his comments in interviews. However, he claimed that his complaint against Meyer was purely literary and not personal.
King, another conservative politician who fell victim to the master of horror, first targeted Ted Cruz in February 2021. The Texas senator has faced widespread complaints about bringing a circle of relatives to Cancun, while his constituents have suffered power outages and frostbites. Temperatures after a harsh winter storm in the state.
King was one of many who criticized Cruz on social media. After the 53-year-old posted a warning to X about an “invasion” of migrants at the southern border, King commented, “You also spent a lot of time in Cancun. It’s a southern stretch, is it rarely?
Cruz responded by accusing King of being a “billionaire leftist” who ignores the suffering at the southern border, accusing him of not caring about the deaths and abuses that occur there.
However, King continued to laugh at Cruz on the social network, highlighting the wealth of the Republican politician and the lack of interest in his constituents. In reaction to the insult, Cruz accused King of avoiding debate on border issues by focusing on his net worth. He added that he would continue to “fight for 30 million Texans every day. “
Along with Disney, Ron DeSantis has added King to his list of enemies in the entertainment world. The two first faced off in August 2021, when King appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
During the interview, King did hide his contempt for the Florida governor. The writer, who owns a vacation home in the state, criticized the Republican handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the environmental crisis caused by the red tide in Florida waters.
“Ron DeSantis is not the brightest light bulb at the most productive time,” King said.
When King was asked by Colbert if he thought DeSantis was an “evil genius” or a “mastermind,” he replied, “No, I wouldn’t say that. You know, somehow he has that deer-like look at the headlights. “
It wasn’t long before the duo fought for X, with King criticizing DeSantis for his ban on mask mandates and environmental policies.
“DeSantis’ policies are right-wing, ‘individual regulations and to hell with what happens’ policies,” he wrote. “They are turning a beautiful state into a giant intensive care unit where even other healthy people can breathe a little. “
However, King came under fire in July 2022, after sharing a misleading headline about DeSantis. Salon’s article reported that DeSantis had signed a bill requiring professors and professors to sign off on their political perspectives with the state.
“DeSantis’ symptoms demand that Florida academics sign their political perspectives with the state,” he tweeted. “I can’t. Not even. “
After learning of the error, King apologized and acknowledged that he had verified the accuracy of the name before sharing it.
“I’m sorry to publish the name without being more sure that the story is true,” he said. “Twitter is a constant learning experience and I will try to improve it. “
Sophie is an entertainment and pop culture reporter for Newsweek founded in Lincoln, UK. It focuses on film and television reporting, news trends and the entertainment industry. She has covered pop culture, women’s rights, and the arts extensively. Sophie joined Newsweek in 2022, then left Social Change UK and has previously written for The Untitled Magazine, The Mary Sue, Ms. Magazine and Screen Rant. He holds a BA with Honours in Fine Art from Birmingham City University and a Master’s degree in Art Journalism from the University of Lincoln. Languages: English.
You can reach Sophie by emailing s. lloyd@newsweek. com.
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