--- title: Stephen King Trolls Donald Trump With Wiretap Horror Story description: Stephen King mocked President Trump's claims that Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 election with a new horror story. canonical: https://time.com/4691760/stephen-king-trump-wiretap-horror-story/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-06T16:18:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T07:19:23.350Z og:title: Stephen King Trolls Trump's Wiretap Claims With Horror Story og:description: You'll never guess the big twist og:url: https://time.com/4691760/stephen-king-trump-wiretap-horror-story/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38b009b1fa0b95cf/6988bd11cf40a82facc46b63/stephen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: ABC's "Good Morning America" - 2015 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen King Trolls Trump's Wiretap Claims With Horror Story twitter:description: You'll never guess the big twist twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38b009b1fa0b95cf/6988bd11cf40a82facc46b63/stephen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen King Trolls Donald Trump's Wiretap Claim With Hair-Raising Horror Story > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ce4c1fd9-4747-47ed-9f8b-818c40f47e3b&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Obama Spokesman Says President Trump's Wiretapping Claim Is 'Simply False' [Watch (HLS stream): Obama Spokesman Says President Trump's Wiretapping Claim Is 'Simply False'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pLVPzBqw.m3u8) (1:32)  _Published 2017-03-04. Former president Barack Obama responded to President Donald Trump's accusation that Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower phones while still in office._  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 6, 2017 4:18 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 6, 2017 4:18 PM UTC After [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4691679/donald-trump-barack-obama-wiretap-whitehouse/) took to Twitter Saturday to [accuse Barack Obama](http://time.com/4691226/barack-obama-president-donald-trump-wiretap/) of [wiretapping](http://time.com/4691279/white-house-trump-obama-wire-tap/) Trump Tower during the 2016 election, [Stephen King](http://time.com/3987082/stephen-king-donald-trump/) trolled POTUS by sharing his latest horror story. In a series of three tweets, the author penned a short thriller mocking the allegations, seeming to ridicule the fact that Trump provided [no evidence backing up his claims](http://time.com/4691286/james-clapper-donald-trump-barack-obama-wire-tap/). “Not only did Obama tap Trump’s phones, he stole the strawberry ice cream out of the mess locker,” King wrote. “Obama tapped Trump’s phones IN PERSON! Went in wearing a Con Ed coverall. Michelle stood guard while O spliced the lines. SAD!” > [](https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/838079372934463491) > [](https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/838081028929519617) But it was the twist ending that really took the cake: “Trump should know OBAMA NEVER LEFT THE WHITE HOUSE! He’s in the closet! HE HAS SCISSORS!” > [](https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/838111226211233793) Scary stuff. ## Transcript [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4691760/stephen-king-trump-wiretap-horror-story/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4691760/stephen-king-trump-wiretap-horror-story/"},"headline":"Stephen King Trolls Donald Trump's Wiretap Claim With Hair-Raising Horror Story","datePublished":"2017-03-06T16:18:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-07T07:19:23.350Z","description":"You'll never guess the big twist","url":"https://time.com/4691760/stephen-king-trump-wiretap-horror-story/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","Internet","celebrities","twitter","Authors","Stephen King","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38b009b1fa0b95cf/6988bd11cf40a82facc46b63/stephen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38b009b1fa0b95cf/6988bd11cf40a82facc46b63/stephen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ABC's \"Good Morning America\" - 2015","caption":"Author of contemporary horror, Stephen King is a guest on GOOD MORNING AMERICA, 11/2/15.","creditText":"Lou Rocco/ABC via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4691760/stephen-king-trump-wiretap-horror-story/","name":"Stephen King Trolls Donald Trump's Wiretap Claim With Hair-Raising Horror Story"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Obama Spokesman Says President Trump's Wiretapping Claim Is 'Simply False'","description":"Former president Barack Obama responded to President Donald Trump's accusation that Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower phones while still in office.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pLVPzBqw/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-03-04T22:46:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pLVPzBqw.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4691760/stephen-king-trump-wiretap-horror-story/","duration":"PT1M32S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4691760/stephen-king-trump-wiretap-horror-story/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```