Stephen King seemed to surprisingly side with Donald Trump’s administration about Jeffrey Epstein’s “client list” on Tuesday, to the shock of many of his fans.
King posted to X, a platform he once vowed to leave in protest to Elon Musk’s takeover, “The Epstein client list is real. So is the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.”
The post expressing his doubt that the infamous list exists was met with immediate backlash, as the notoriously anti-Trump horror author has amassed a slew of left-leaning followers for his punchy Trump takedowns.
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“Cmon dude. Clearly Epstein had clients who could be compiled into a list,” wrote one. “I did not expect this take from you,” wrote another.
Others went straight for the jugular, suggesting the author had implicated himself. “The one time you take trumps side is to defend child rape?” one user wrote one, as another added, “Sounds like someone has something to hide.”
Of course, while Trump’s DOJ has declined to release an unknown number of files related to the Epstein investigation, there has been no evidence provided that a “client list” exists. The Daily Beast reached out to King for comment.
The case against Epstein has upended the usual divides across the political landscape. Devoted MAGA supporters who’ve had little criticism for Trump’s administration have challenged and questioned Trump more than ever before over the suspected existence of Epstein’s “client list”—particularly after Attorney General Pam Bondi said they were “on her desk,” and then backtracked and declared the case closed.
MAGA devotee Megyn Kelly went so far as to posit that Trump may have “blessed” a cover-up of Epstein’s crimes. And conservative conspiracy theorist Alex Jones didn’t hide his disappointment in the president when it was revealed the case was dropped.
And while some voices on the left celebrated the internal MAGA strife, very few have denied that the DOJ findings are suspicious—with the exception of King.
The famous novelist has become known for posting Trump insults to his nearly seven million online followers. He’s called Trump everything from “a thin-skinned racist with the temperament of a 3-year-old” in 2016 to “miserable self‑entitled infantile f---er” in 2020, and beyond.
King also recirculates memes calling Trump a “pedo” and has called him a liar publicly over a dozen times. Just one day earlier, he declared Trump and his Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem racist again, writing to X Monday, “The Trump/Noem Credo: ‘If you’re white, you’re all right. If you’re brown, get out of town.’” So his followers were understandably surprised to find King on the same page as Trump when it comes to the Epstein situation.
The author has not, by the time of publication, offered an explanation for his agreement that “list” doesn’t exist, but some fans have tried to explain the statement on his behalf.
“He’s saying it never was a thing to begin with,” one wrote to Reddit, dismissing the idea that King is siding with Trump. Added another, “Maybe he’s saying that the list never existed and Trump just used the ‘list’ to win the election. That’s pretty strange.”
