Stephen King Says Donald Trump Has ‘Given Up’ on Winning Popular Vote

Horror writer Stephen King claims presidential hopeful Donald Trump has “given up” trying to win over voters and is instead focusing on other electoral tactics to try to succeed.

The Republican politician’s campaign team are hoping that voter suppression and a push to change a key state’s ballot laws will work in Trump’s favor, King has alleged. Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s representatives by email seeking comment on King’s claims.

King, who makes a living writing about scary phenomena, has been vocal about his own fears of Trump attaining power. The long-time Trump critic frequently posts about politics on social media and has not held back from attacking the former president on X (formerly Twitter). Earlier this month, he posted during the presidential TV debate and one comment went viral after he opined: “Trump sounds barking mad.” For his part, Trump appears not to be a fan of King and reportedly blocked the author from reading his then-Twitter posts when he was president back in 2017.

King looks set to continue the spat this week, by claiming that Trump hopes to regain power by “counting on voter suppression” rather than convincing voters that his policy plans are better than those being offered by Democratic rival Kamala Harris. The writer also suggested that Trump’s team are trying to change Nebraska’s electoral college law in such a way that it could potentially return Trump to the White House for a second term.

In Nebraska’s current structure, the winner of each of its three congressional districts is given an electoral vote while its two remaining votes are given to the winner of the statewide popular vote. Nebraska is a red state but one district is “purple” and voted for Democratic President Joe Biden four years ago, with Harris a slight favorite to take it again this time round. But Republicans want to switch to the winner-takes-all system that 48 other states use, where the winner of the statewide popular vote gets all the state’s electoral votes. That would potentially deny Harris one vote in a contest that looks set to be razor close.

King took to X on Sunday to tell his 7 million followers: “Trump has very little ground game—few people leafleting or ringing doorbells. The campaign is counting on voter suppression and pushing Nebraska lawmakers to cancel out the Omaha vote for Harris. They have given up on winning the popular vote.”

His comments proved divisive online.

Several X users replied to disagree with King’s analysis. “Asking to present ID isn’t ‘suppressing votes,'” one follower told him. Another added: “People that vote for Trump (as well as most Americans) don’t want A-holes like you standing on our doorstep telling us what to do.” Others simply responded with insults, with one who identified as belonging to the Trump-supporting Make America Great Again [MAGA] movement telling the author he was a “little bitch ass socialist,” while another dubbed him “Stephanie Queen.”

But other followers aligned with King’s take on the presidential race. “They are going full election interference mode,” one agreed. “They sure can’t win on policy or decency,” another added. While a third wrote that Republicans are “trying to hack the system because they know their product is defective!”

However, others were concerned about the alleged tactics, with one X user saying: “When campaigns shift focus from grassroots engagement to suppression tactics, it raises concerns about the integrity of the electoral process—every vote should count!”

Besides contacting Trump’s team, Newsweek has also emailed Harris’ campaign representatives seeking comment.