Stephen King says it is ‘easy to overestimate’ the rise of fascism in America

Stephen King has said he feels it is “easy to overestimate” the rise of fascism in America.

The 74-year-old prolific American author, often described as the ‘King of Horror’, spoke to fellow writer and TV presenter Richard Osman about his thoughts on the current political situation in the US for The Sunday Times.

He told Osman: “There is a strong right wing, a political right wing in America, and they have a megaphone in some of the media.

“They’re not fascists but they’re hard right-wingers. They’re certainly climate change deniers, so that is a real problem.”

King, who has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump, said he cannot “really understand” people who continue to support the former US president given his actions over recent years.

However, the acclaimed author added that he feels “most people are good” regardless of which political group they affiliate with.

He told Osman, the former Pointless host who now writes the Thursday Murder Club book series: “I don’t really understand the people who continue to support (Trump), but I do understand that a guy driving a pickup truck covered with Trump and NRA stickers – you know, ‘take my rifle when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers’ – would stop and pick up a stranger if he was in a rainstorm and say: ‘Where you going, buddy?’

“That guy might go out of his way to take him there because people as individuals are good.

“I think sometimes when they get to be a political group that can be a problem.”

King has published more than 60 novels across his career including The Shining, Carrie, It and Pet Sematary.

Following the attack on novelist Sir Salman Rushdie in New York on Friday, he tweeted: “I hope Salman Rushdie is okay” and later questioned what type of person stabs a writer.

King’s latest novel Fairy Tale is published on September 6. The full interview is available in The Sunday Times.