Stephen King has defended his comments about Donald Trump’s attitude towards veterans by pointing out the former president’s own advisor believed them to be true.
The horror author is a regular critic of Trump, who is the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election.
Most recently, King shared a quote by John Kelly, who served as secretary of homeland Security and then chief of staff during Trump’s presidency.
King wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Trump didn’t want to be photographed with amputee veterans. He said, ‘It doesn’t look good for me.’ —John Kelly—”
But when people pushed back on that post, King reposted them with his own rebuttal, which has almost had 250,000 views at the time of writing.
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images, Drew Angerer/Getty Images
One person, @fityeh, wrote to King, “Stephen, that’s not true. Trump loves veterans and is a true American. What you’re saying is false and not cool.”
King rebutted, “If he loved veterans, wouldn’t he be one?”
But another person was not happy with King’s comments, and shared a number of photos of Trump posing with veterans and signing autographs with them with the caption, “It’s so easy to prove you’re a liar.”
King also reposted that comment reinforcing that he’d based his posts on what Kelly has said publicly about the former president.
Trump’s ex-chief of staff told CNN in 2023 that the former president reportedly called service members “losers” and “suckers” because “there is nothing in it for them.” He also said Trump did not want to have wounded veterans in his presence because “it doesn’t look good for me.”
Newsweek contacted Trump’s representatives by email for comment.
At the time of Kelly’s claims, Trump responded to them on his Truth Social website.
He called Kelly, “the dumbest of my Military people,” saying Kelly was “incapable of doing a good job, it was too much for him, and I couldn’t stand the guy, so I fired him like a ‘dog.'”
“He had no heart or respect for people, so I hit him hard—Made no difference to me,” Trump wrote. “He’s already on record defending me all over the place. Nobody loves the Military like I do!”
“He’s a Lowlife with a very small brain and a very big mouth. Numerous people are angry and upset because they know they will never be in a new Trump Administration, but only for one reason, they’re not nearly good enough. Kelly would be among those at the top of the list!”
King rose to fame as a popular horror author known for titles such as It and Pet Sematary. He has previously said he became a member of the Democrat Party in 1970.
