Stephen King predicted Trump 40 years ago — but he says the reality is scarier than he thought

You know something’s gone far wrong when even fiction’s “master of horror” admits he hasn’t dreamt up anything as scary as the sitting president of the United States.

Ahead of Tuesday's election, NowThis shared an interview with Stephen King and asked him directly if he thinks the Trump presidency is scarier than his novels.

Without hesitation, the prolific novelist replied:

The short answer to that is, yes I do. I do think it’s scarier.

Well if that isn’t shiver-inducing, I don’t know what is.

Particularly when you bear in mind that Stephen King was dreaming up characters akin to Donald Trump 40 years ago.

His 1979 book The Dead Zone imagined the rise of a politician named Greg Stillson, a former “real estate con man” who is at first taken as a joke, saying things no other politician would dream of saying and holding increasingly violent rallies.

Sound familiar?

Mr King told NowThis the inspiration behind his novel:

American voters have always had a real attraction to outsiders with the same kind of right-wing, America-first policy.

It was a boogeyman of mine, and I never wanted to see him actually on the American political scene, but we do seem to have a Greg Stillson as president of the United States.

Given that the story involves nuclear holocaust, Mr King’s recent assessment is particularly chilling.

The people of Twitter felt similarly.

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