Stephen King Takes on (Fictitious) Trump Supporters

King compares president to characters he has written who are “charismatic” but whose ideas are “simple, straightforward and impractical”

Stephen King It Steven Spielberg
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Stephen King is trying to better understand Trump voters by inventing a few.

In a piece for The Guardian published over the weekend, King wrote six fictional characters who voted for Trump. They include Indiana construction worker “Gary from Gary is 41, married with two kids, currently unemployed” and David Allen, a “a roadie-for-hire in Nashville, almost always employed.” He stressed that none of his pro-trump characters were “stupid, venal or evil,” but imagined that all had been given truth serum that would make them explain honestly why they supported Trump.

King’s said his interest in Trump started, in part, because of Trump’s similarity with two of King’s characters: Greg Stillson from “The Dead Zone” and Big Jim Rennie in “Under The Dome,” who are both charming, but problematic men who rise to high office.

“Such men do not succeed to high office often, but when they do, the times are always troubled, the candidates in question charismatic, their proposed solutions to complex problems simple, straightforward and impractical. The baggage that should weigh these hucksters down becomes magically light, lifting them over the competition like Carl Fredricksen in the Pixar film “Up.” Trump’s negatives didn’t drag him down; on the contrary, they helped get him elected.”

King said his imagined Trump voters were annoyed by Hillary Clinton, suffered from economic anxiety that they blamed on illegal immigrants, and shared a general mistrust of the press. Some of the characters are outwardly racist and sexist, but others claimed that their support for Trump wasn’t about race or sex.

For the most part, King decided, his six fictional Trump supporters voted for him because he spoke his mind.

“And I admired him for a comeback he made to Clinton in, I think it was their first debate,” said one. “She said he paid no taxes, and Trump came right back, said: “That makes me smart.” I knew right then I was going to vote for him, because taxes are killers.”

King has been one of Donald Trump’s most vocal critics, specifically on Twitter. His tweets have ranged from serious observations on news…

… to facetious, mocking comments calling out members of the Trump administration.

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