Stephen King uses 'Misery' comparison to roast Trump on Threads

"Think of it this way..."
By
Sam Haysom
 on 
An older man stands on a red carpet.
Credit: Mathew Tsang/Getty Images

Stephen King already has a whole book that basically predicted the rise of Donald Trump (see The Dead Zone), but now he's using one of his other novels to talk about the president's recent actions.

Posting on Threads (where the horror author is now more active than X), King used his 1987 book Misery to analyse the current state of the U.S. economy.

"Think of it this way," he wrote. "Paul Sheldon is the American economy. Donald Trump is his number one fan."

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If you haven't read Misery, Paul Sheldon is the protagonist of the story. He's an author who gets rescued from a car crash — and then imprisoned — by a sadistic nurse called Annie Wilkes, who describes herself as his "number one fan".

King's analogy suggests that Trump is not only obsessed with the U.S. economy, but also — possibly through his tariffs — that he's holding it hostage, and subsequently hurting it a great deal.

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Sam Haysom

Sam Haysom is the Deputy UK Editor for Mashable. He covers entertainment and online culture, and writes horror fiction in his spare time.


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