How’s this for a horror scenario? A short-tempered egomaniac takes control of your country, including its social services, its military, and its nuclear arsenal. Every day he hops on his bullhorn to make random pronouncements, denouncing his enemies and touting his own greatness… and you’re the only one who can’t hear them. Add in some gratuitous references to Maine and a smattering of colorful swearing, and you might have the first draft of a new Stephen King novel. But this dark—if peacefully quiet—scenario is actually the bestselling author’s actual reality, as he announced today that Donald Trump has blocked him on Twitter.
King has been a noted critic of Trump’s, frequently calling him an “impulsive, bad-tempered idiot,” and mocking his various gaffes. Still, this is the White House’s most high-profile blockage to date, a bit of bad netiquette that’s been elevated to actual news because Trump frequently uses his Twitter to issue what press secretary Sean Spicer has confirmed are “official” statements. In fact, various groups, including the free-speech advocates at the Knight Foundation, have suggested that blocking someone from reading a presidential statement is unconstitutional, although it’s not clear what the Founding Fathers themselves thought about Twitter. (Their views on Instagram are somewhat easier to parse.)
In any case, it doesn’t look like King is likely to be cowed by the presidential snub (after all, there’ll be tweets if Ka wills it). He’s continued to criticize Trump and his family several times, just today. Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly writer Anthony Breznican summarized the situation pretty well: