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Stephen King is once again turning his horror sensibilities on American politics—this time by throwing Donald Trump’s own words back at one of his fiercest online allies.
The bestselling author and outspoken Trump critic reacted to right-wing activist Laura Loomer on X (formerly Twitter) after she amplified Trump’s Truth Social rant about supposed “Democrat traitors” in the military. Loomer demanded to know when those Democrats would be arrested for “treason or sedition”—and King quote-posted her with just two words: “Quiet, piggy.”
King Recycles a Trump Insult—and MAGA Takes Notice
King’s jab wasn’t random. The phrase directly echoes Trump’s recent comment to Bloomberg News reporter Catherine Lucey aboard Air Force One, when the former president responded to a question about Jeffrey Epstein files by snapping, “Quiet, quiet, piggy!” while pointing at her. The remark sparked immediate backlash and a tortured defense from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said Trump was simply being “very frank and honest with everyone in the room.”
According to Yahoo News reporting, King has repeated the “Quiet, piggy” line at least half a dozen times this week, not just at Loomer but at MAGA-aligned accounts like Catturd, Gunther Eagleman, and former White House adviser Stephen Miller. It’s the latest flare-up in a long-running feud between the Carrie and It author and the online right.
King has used his 6.8 million-follower X account as a running commentary on Trump, Elon Musk, and hard-right influencers. He has also publicly slammed the platform’s toxicity—then left, returned, and left again—while continuing to post pointed political commentary, as detailed by Kirkus Reviews.
From Banned Books to Political Backlash
King’s online barbs land differently in 2025, when his work has become a lightning rod in schools and libraries. A new PEN America report finds that King is now the most banned author in U.S. schools for 2024–2025, with 206 censorship cases touching 87 of his works, including Carrie and The Stand, according to Euronews. His name now routinely appears in the same breath as rising school book bans and new censorship waves.
That visibility has a cost. Earlier this year, King drew rare bipartisan outrage after he posted on X that conservative activist Charlie Kirk “advocated stoning gays to death” following Kirk’s comments about biblical passages on homosexuality. After backlash from figures including Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Sen. Ted Cruz—who called King a “horrible, evil, twisted liar”—the author walked the remark back, clarifying that he meant to highlight how some people cherry-pick scripture, as reported by the New York Post.
King’s political edge has also bled into his fiction. His recent novel Holly drew attention for its overt engagement with COVID denialism, right-wing extremism, and conspiracy culture, further cementing the sense that his books and his X feed are part of the same project. Meanwhile, even as a new adaptation of his short story “The Monkey” heads to theaters in 2025, coverage of King is just as likely to focus on his latest post about Trump or Musk as on his film and TV slate, per recent reporting.
For readers, the “Quiet, piggy” flap is less a one-off insult than another chapter in King’s ongoing evolution from horror novelist to high-profile political antagonist. As his books face more challenges in classrooms and his adaptations multiply on screen, his social media battles are increasingly part of how fans—and critics—experience the Stephen King universe.
