Stephen King Attacks Donald Trump’s Labor Day Absence

Author Stephen King has criticized Donald Trump for not holding any campaign events on Labor Day.

King, a frequent critic of the former president, lambasted the Republican candidate for failing to host any election events on Labor Day, the annual federal holiday held every first Monday in September. On Monday, Trump and his running mate JD Vance did not host any events, a marked contrast from previous election cycles and from their opponents Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

“Trump and Vance aren’t campaigning today, and why would they?” King posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday. “They don’t give S*** One about the working man.” Newsweek has contacted Trump’s campaign team via email for comment outside of normal working hours.

During his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, Trump was active in person on Labor Day. In his first bid for the presidency, he visited Ohio, and while presiden in 2020, he made a speech from the White House.

Despite not making an outing, Trump took to social media to send a message of support to American workers on the federal holiday and to criticize Harris. “Happy Labor Day to all of our American Workers who represent the Shining Example of Hard Work and Ingenuity,” Trump wrote on X. “Under Comrade Kamala Harris, all Americans are suffering during this Holiday weekend—High Gas Prices, Transportation Costs are up, and Grocery Prices are through the roof. We can’t keep living under this weak and failed ‘Leadership.'”

His running mate, Senator Vance from Ohio, also wished workers well. “Happy Labor Day, especially to the workers—past and present—who built this country,” he wrote on X. “President Trump and I will always stand for the people who get up every morning and keep this country going.”

This week, Trump and Vance are to campaign in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Harris and Walz both hosted events on Monday. The Democratic nominee was joined by President Joe Biden for a rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, while Walz greeted labor leaders in Minnesota before heading to Wisconsin. Trump and Harris are scheduled to debate one another on September 10.

“Donald Trump and JD Vance have been absent from the campaign trail this Labor Day weekend because they know their anti-worker agenda is extreme, unpopular, and would devastate America’s working class,” the Democratic campaign said in a statement. “The Trump-Vance Project 2025 playbook would make it harder for workers to form unions and gut overtime pay—all while raising taxes on the middle class and rigging the economy for billionaires and big corporations.

“Americans are fired up to elect Vice President Harris and former union member Governor Walz because they are champions for labor who will stop the most anti-union ticket in American history.”

In a further post on X, King responded to one MAGA supporter who asked him where incumbent Joe Biden has been “in the last 16 days,” to which King said the president is “doing his job.”

Biden, who bowed out of the race for the White House in July, has recently been at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with his wife Jill Biden. He appeared with Harris on the campaign trail on Monday.