Every celebrity Stephen King has feuded with

Since joining X—formerly Twitter—in 2013, Stephen King, has been a frequent tweeter. The iconic horror author has never been shy about sharing his opinions with the world, but it’s not only his 7.1 million followers that have taken note.

The 76-year-old has made a number of enemies on the social network. A Democrat since 1970, King has had public spats with several politicians, as well as disputes with many of his fellow authors.

Still, his legendary clapbacks aren’t confined to social media, with some of his most famous fallouts predating social media.

Here’s the full list of King’s biggest famous celebrity feuds.

Donald Trump

The Shining author is an outspoken critic of the former president. King was one of 450 writers to sign an open letter protesting Donald Trump‘s candidacy in 2016, with his feud with the Republican politician going back years.

King regularly criticizes the business mogul on X, formerly Twitter. Recent posts include mocking Trump’s Battle of Gettysburg speech in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania—with King dubbing the 77-year-old a “dimbulb”—along with sharing his thoughts on Trump’s New York criminal trial.

The real estate magnate is accused of falsifying business records to hide “hush money” payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 general election. Daniels claims she and Trump had a one-night stand in 2006. Trump has denied both the allegations and the charges against him.

“If Trump were a Black man, or a poor white guy, and mouthed off like Trump does, he’d be in Rikers [jail] tonight,” King wrote on X in April, following reports that The Apprentice star had fallen asleep in court.

In March, King issued a warning to Americans, referencing Trump’s 2020 Georgia election fraud case.

“If you voted for [President Joe] Biden in 2020 and are thinking of voting for Trump this time, keep this in mind: In Trump’s grab for power, he tried to steal your Biden vote by rendering it null and void,” King posted, with his message receiving 1.7 million views.

Marjorie Taylor Greene

King not only hits out at Trump, but also his supporters, such as Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

In April, King dubbed the Republican “Moscow Marjorie” on X, after Greene slammed fellow GOP members for passing a Ukraine aid bill. The legislation promised the country $60 billion in foreign aid as it continues to battle against Russia’s invasion.

However, this wasn’t the first time that King had taken aim at Greene. The Misery writer also criticized Greene in January, after the politician said she approved of a partial government shutdown.

Greene retweeted an X post by reporter Joyce Karam that said “SCOOP: Hundreds of US Gov. Employees plan Walkout on Tuesday over Biden’s Gaza Policies. **22 Agencies** involved.”

“Another reason I won’t feel guilty over a government shutdown,” Greene wrote alongside the retweet. “Too many federal employees are nothing more than political activists. This will be a great list to fire ASAP!”

King was quick to reply, asking Greene: “Do you keep getting paid, dear?”

In November, the author accused Greene of sharing false information about the Israel-Hamas war.

“Israel is literally dominating in their war with Hamas after being brutally attacked killing thousands of innocent people, and not one single American dollar has been spent on that war yet,” the 50-year-old wrote on X. “Just think about that.”

“Are you tripping?” King said in response. “We’ve given them aid and armaments for decades.”

Elon Musk

The dispute between King and the tech mogul began in October 2022, when Elon Musk purchased Twitter and rebranded the social network as X.

“I think I liked Twitter better in the pre-Musk days. Less controversy, more fun,” King posted at the time.

The Tesla CEO responded in a comment, telling King that he’s “still a fan tbh,” despite the remark. However, King also hit out at Musk’s decision to charge users $20 per month for verified status. In the past, the blue tick on their profile was reserved for the official accounts of businesses and public figures.

“If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron,” King said, although he still remains an active user on the platform as of May 2024. However, The Green Mile writer has continued to express his discontent with the name change, still calling the site Twitter.

This led to a public spat with the Musk in February, when King posted: “Dear Elon: Twitter. Twitter, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter.”

“F*** your need to put your personal brand on everything,” he added in a follow-up post shortly afterward. “Just because you bought it doesn’t mean you own it.”

The post went viral, receiving over 12.4 million views. In response, Musk just responded with the platform’s new logo, a double X.

By March 2023, King was making frequent jabs at Musk’s policies, with the billionaire occasionally biting back. The author remains a vocal critic of Musk, although the 52-year-old SpaceX founder has gone quiet for now.

James Patterson

The conflict between the two authors started in 2007, when King, after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Booksellers Association, criticized Patterson’s work.

King told reporters: “I don’t like him, I don’t respect his books because every one is the same,” accusing the thriller writer of being formulaic.

Patterson responded via of a review of 1408, posted on his website the same year. The film is based on King’s 1999 short story of the same name about a haunted hotel room.

“Recently Stephen King commented that he doesn’t have any respect for me,” Patterson wrote. “Doesn’t make too much sense—I’m a good dad, a nice husband-my only crime is I’ve sold millions of books.”

The feud escalated in 2016, when Patterson announced a book titled The Murder of Stephen King.

The novel would have seen King stalked by a character embodying many of his own creations, but Patterson ultimately decided to scrap the project out of respect for King and his family—and a significant amount of public backlash.

Dan Bongino

The beef between King and the podcaster was sparked in May, after Bongino criticized Biden.

As a Biden supporter, King took the opportunity to poke fun at Bongino. The Dark Half author mocked the conservative political commentator on X, ridiculing his recent exit from Fox News.

Bongino previously hosted the Saturday night show Unfiltered. However, the 48-year-old cut ties with the network in May following a contract dispute, before launching his new podcast, The Dan Bongino Show.

Bongino struck back, calling King a “d******.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Millions of listeners a day on a podcast while you’re watching porn in your momma’s basement yearning for the days that people actually gave a s*** about your dumb a***,” he wrote. “Get a job loser.”

J.K. Rowling

The feud between King and the Harry Potter creator began in 2020, when King retweeted a post from Rowling defending herself from accusations of transphobia. The Scottish author praised King on X, saying that her “love” for him had reached “new heights.”

However, when a user asked King to clarify his stance on transgender women, he responded: “Yes. Trans women are women.” This led Rowling to delete her positive post about King, with the 58-year-old also unfollowing him on the network.

King addressed the awkward situation during an interview with The Daily Beast in May 2021. King emphasized that while they had differing opinions, he defended her right to hold her views, even if he disagreed with them​.

Stanley Kubrick

His falling out with Kubrick is perhaps the most famous of King’s feuds. The author and acclaimed director first butted heads in the early 1980s, when Kubrick acquired the rights to King’s 1977 horror classic, The Shining.

King was initially excited about Kubrick directing the adaptation due to his reputation as a master filmmaker. However, the Oscar winner made several changes to the storyline that King felt were unnecessary.

The author believed that Kubrick had missed the point of the novel, leaving out key themes—such as the importance of family—and focusing more on ambiguity and psychological horror.

King was also unhappy with Kubrick’s casting decisions. King believed that Nicholson’s portrayal of Jack Torrance was too “manic” from the get-go, not allowing for the character’s gradual descent into madness as depicted in his novel.

He also disliked the film’s characterization of Wendy Torrance, played by Shelley Duvall, whom he felt was depicted as weak and less resourceful than her literary counterpart.

In 1997, King wrote and produced his own TV adaptation of The Shining. Despite being more faithful to the novel, the miniseries received mixed reviews, while Kubrick’s adaptation has gone down in movie history.

Stephanie Meyer

The feud between King and Stephanie Meyer was ignited by an interview with USA Weekend in 2009, in which King unfavorably compared the Twilight author to J.K. Rowling.

“Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people,” he said. “The real difference is that J.K. Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”

Unsurprisingly, the franchise’s devoted teen fan base came to Meyer’s defense, but the young adult author never publicly responded to King’s comments.

Still, King has stuck to his guns over the years, reiterating his comments in various interviews. Although, he claimed his criticism of Meyer was purely literary and not personal.

Ted Cruz

Another conservative politician to fall foul of the horror master, King first hit out at Ted Cruz in February 2021. The Texas senator faced widespread criticism for taking a family trip to Cancun, while his constituents suffered from power outages and freezing temperatures following a severe winter storm in the state.

King was one of many to slam Cruz on social media. After the 53-year-old posted a warning to X about a migrant “invasion” at the southern border, King commented: “You’ve also spent a lot of time in Cancun. That’s pretty south, right?”​

Cruz hit back, accusing King of being a “multimillionaire leftist,” who ignores the suffering at the southern border, accusing him of not caring about the deaths and abuses happening there​.

However, King continued to mock Cruz on the social network, spotlighting the Republican politician’s wealth and perceived lack of concern for his constituents. Responding to the slight, Cruz accused King of skirting a debate on border issues by focusing on his net worth, adding that he would continue to “fight every day for 30 million Texans.”

Ron DeSantis

Along with Disney, Ron DeSantis has added King to his list of entertainment world foes. The pair initially clashed in August 2021, when King appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

During the interview, King did not hold back his disdain for the Florida governor. The writer—who has a vacation home in the state—criticized the Republican’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the environmental crisis caused by red tide in Florida waters.

“Ron DeSantis is probably not the brightest bulb in the chandelier at the best of times,” King said.

When Colbert asked King if he believed DeSantis is an “evil genius” or a “mastermind,” the author replied: “No, I wouldn’t say so. You know, he’s got that deer-in-the-headlights look somehow.”

It wasn’t long before the duo were battling it out on X, with King blasting DeSantis for his ban on mask mandates in schools and environmental policies.

“DeSantis policies are right-wing ‘the individual rules and to hell with what happens’ policies,” he wrote. “They are turning a beautiful state into a big ICU ward where even healthy people can barely breathe.”

However, King came under fire in July 2022, after accidentally sharing a misleading headline about DeSantis. The Salon article suggested that DeSantis had signed a bill requiring teachers and professors to register their political views with the state.

“DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state,” he tweeted. “I. Can’t. Even.”

Upon realizing the mistake, King issued an apology, acknowledging that he had not verified the accuracy of the headline before sharing it.

“I regret having posted the headline without being more confident the story was correct,” he said. “Twitter is a constant learning experience, and I will try to do better.”