Stephen King's State of the Union Message Goes Viral

Horror author Stephen King shared his thoughts on President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Thursday, slamming Trump supporters in the process.

Biden gave the annual speech before Congress, in which he sought to tout his accomplishments from the last year on various topics, including the economy and lowering prescription drug prices. The president didn't shy away from crucial election issues, including immigration and the economy, and he also addressed concerns about his mental fitness and more amid the 2024 presidential race.

The address comes as he seeks to make his reelection case to the American people. Biden appears poised to secure the Democratic presidential nomination, setting up a likely rematch against former President Donald Trump in November. Republicans, meanwhile, have used the address to draw attention to what they see as errors in the administration's foreign and economic policy.

On the night, King used the opportunity to criticize supporters of Trump, sharing a post to X, formerly Twitter.

Newsweek emailed spokespeople for Trump and King for comment on Friday.

"Won't be many Trumpers watching the State of the Union. Joe is like kryptonite to them," King wrote. At the time of writing, the post has been viewed 423,100 times.

King's social media posts tend to be divisive and Trump supporters took to the comments to criticize King and tell him they would actually be watching the address.

"Are you kidding We are playing a drinking game where you have to take a shot for each lie or falsely made statement. Expecting a hangover tomorrow," one person posted.

"We are watching for the same reason we used to read your books, we like a horror story every once in a while," said another.

Others explained why they wouldn't be watching, with one person writing: "If I wanted to spend an hour listening to someone make incoherent sounds I'd just watch Teletubbies."

"Nope. My time is just more valuable than to listen to our President try to make excuses for why his policies have failed. It's a net negative for me when I consider that nothing he can say or nothing the Biden Admin can do will change my opinion come November. Right now it's RFK Jr or somebody else for POTUS. Biden isn't in my consideration at all," said another.

Different X users agreed with King, with one person saying: "Yet they'll criticize something they didn't even watch."

Biden also used Thursday's speech to highlight the differences between his and Trump's campaigns and condemned the former president's policies on issues like abortion, taxes and foreign affairs.

The president specifically called Trump out for his recent attacks toward NATO, and accused him of "bowing down" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has faced widespread backlash after saying that he would "encourage" Russia to attack any country that does not meet NATO's military spending requirements.

Trump shot back at Biden's comments on Truth Social, writing: "Putin only invaded Ukraine, because he has no respect for Biden. Would have never happened under the Trump Administration, and for four years it didn't happen!"

King joined the Democratic Party in 1970 and has been an outspoken critic of Trump since before the 77-year-old was elected president in 2016.

On May 24, 2016, King was one of 450 writers to sign an open letter opposing Trump's candidacy, with the author supporting Hillary Clinton's campaign.