Stephen King's Donald Trump Trial Remark Goes Viral

Stephen King isn't shy when it comes to talking about Donald Trump on social media and he's once again weighed in on the former president's hush money trial.

During proceedings for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday and Tuesday, new information was revealed about the 2015 meeting that prosecutors claim was the catalyst of Trump's plan to influence the 2016 presidential election.

David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified about his involvement in Trump's alleged scheme. Pecker served as the CEO of American Media Inc (AMI) between March 1999 to August 2020.

King, who joined the Democratic Party in 1970, often takes to social media to share his thoughts on Trump and a variety of political issues and Tuesday was no different.

"I suppose PECKER SCREWS TRUMP wouldn't work as a headline?" King posted to X, formerly Twitter. At the time of writing, it had been viewed 505,700 times.

Newsweek emailed spokespeople for Pecker, Trump, and King for comment on Wednesday.

King's post referred to the revelations made by Pecker during the trial, which provided insightful information about the National Enquirer's operations, including its "catch and kill" tactics.

People took to the comments to agree with King and joke about the former president.

"We always knew a pecker was going to lead to his downfall, didn't we?" one person asked.

"Works for me!" said another.

A third X user wrote: "King Loves Pecker is a better one."

However, the horror author's X posts always prove to be divisive and others used the opportunity to criticize him.

"So you just wake up thinking about the guy? That's sad," someone else wrote.

Another person added: "I suppose KING SHOULD STICK TO WRITING BAD BOOKS wouldn't work as a headline?"

Pecker was sworn in on Monday, but the 72-year-old publishing executive gave only about a half-hour of testimony before court adjourned early for the Passover holiday. On Tuesday, he resumed his position on the stand.

Pecker said when Trump launched The Apprentice, and subsequently The Celebrity Apprentice, they started a "mutually beneficial relationship" in which Trump would send him the show's ratings or give him scoops on which celebrity was being fired, which he then published in his tabloids.

That's not all he revealed, as he also said during the trial: "We used checkbook journalism and we paid for stories."

Pecker, who was given immunity by prosecutors to testify in the case, has never before publicly discussed the covert practice of purchasing the exclusive rights to a story with the intent of never publishing the material—a way of hiding any possible scandal.

Additionally, Pecker claimed he informed Trump and his team about adult film star Stormy Daniels' decision to go public about her alleged affair with the former president, which resulted in a $130,000 hush payment. He also alleged that editors could spend up to $10,000 on a story and all important articles had to be run by him.

At the center of the case is a meeting that prosecutors said took place at the Trump Tower between Trump, Pecker and former Trump fixer Michael Cohen in August 2015, during which the three men "orchestrated a cover-up to interfere" with the presidential election by concealing negative information about Trump.

In June 2015, Pecker received an invitation from Cohen inviting him to Trump's presidential campaign announcement. He attended and watched Trump announce his candidacy at Trump Tower. Then in August, he was asked by Cohen to return to the Fifth Avenue condominium because "the boss wanted to see me."

"At that meeting, Donald Trump and Michael, they asked me what I can do and what my magazines could do to help the campaign," Pecker testified. "Thinking about it as I did previously, I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr. Trump and I would publish negative stories about his opponents."

Pecker also told Trump and Cohen that he would be the "eyes and ears" for the campaign so that if he heard there was anything negative being shopped around about Trump, he would notify Cohen and Cohen would have those stories killed. Pecker is expected to resume his testimony on Thursday.

Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to claims that before the 2016 presidential election, Trump paid, or discussed paying, two women—Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal—not to disclose his alleged affairs with them. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies the claims that he had sexual relations with these women.