Author Stephen King is mocking voters who believe that former President Donald Trump can be trusted with safeguarding the U.S. economy.
King, an outspoken Democrat who is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election, compared Trump voters trusting the ex-president on the economy to trusting the driving skills of a drunken teenager on Wednesday in a post to X, formerly Twitter.
“Voters saying they trust Trump with the economy is like saying you trust a drunk 17-year-old in a Corvette to drive you home safe,” King wrote.
Voters saying they trust Trump with the economy is like saying you trust a drunk 17-year-old in a Corvette to drive you home safe.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) September 4, 2024
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Trump campaign via email on Wednesday night.
In a previous statement to Newsweek, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said the following: “Stephen King is a dumbass.”
Alex Wong; Rick Kern/WireImage
Republicans typically poll well on the economy and most surveys of this year’s election suggest that voters trust Trump on the economy more than Harris. However, recent polls also suggest that the Republican nominee’s advantage on the issue has eroded significantly.
A poll released last month by the Financial Times found Harris leading Trump on the economy by a tiny margin, 42 percent to 41 percent. Other polls indicate that Trump has a lead over Harris on the issue, although by a significantly smaller margin than his polling advantage over President Joe Biden.
USA Today/Suffolk University released a poll of likely voters on Tuesday that shows Trump leads on issues including the economy, immigration and national security have become smaller since Harris took her place at the top of the Democratic ticket.
On the economy, the poll showed that 50.6 percent of voters think Trump would do a “better job” than Harris, who was backed by 44.8 percent. A version of the poll released shortly before Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris showed Trump leading on the economy by 54 percent to 40.4 percent.
Harris slammed Trump’s economic plans during a rally in New Hampshire on Wednesday, claiming that the ex-president “thinks the American economy revolves around billionaires and big corporations” and would enact a basic necessity sales tax to “skyrocket the costs for families and small businesses.”
The vice president and her running mate Tim Walz have repeatedly accused Trump of inflicting major damage on the U.S. economy while he was in the White House, in part stemming from his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic’s first year.
King frequently criticizes the former president and other Republicans in social media posts, including in multiple X posts written earlier this week.
On Monday, King wrote that Trump and his running mate JD Vance “don’t give S*** One about the working man” because they did not participate in any campaign events on Labor Day, unlike Harris and Walz.
King also took aim at tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk, who has endorsed Trump, arguing on Monday that “most of those who have been caught casting fraudulent ballots are Republicans” after Musk claimed that “those who oppose voter ID are doing so to commit fraud.”
The celebrated horror author told Musk on Tuesday that he was “far too bright to swallow this man’s bulls***” after the billionaire touted the benefits of “a Trump victory.”