Stephen King compares Trump to a drunk ‘senile uncle’ over weird shark rant

Donald Trump’s rambling anecdote about electric boats and sharks at his recent Las Vegas rally has been likened to “listening to your senile uncle at the dinner table after he has that third drink” by the horror novelist Stephen King.

The best-selling writer, a frequent Trump troll on X, was responding to a clip of the Republican presidential contender speaking off-the-cuff in the sweltering heat of Nevada on Sunday.

Having already complained bitterly to the crowd about a malfunctioning teleprompter, Trump launched into an extraordinary riff that left even his closest observers scratching their heads in bafflement.

He began by complaining that “they,” meaning shadowy officials from the Biden administration, were ordering boat manufacturers to adopt electric batteries for environmental reasons, before recounting a possibly-fictitious encounter with a South Carolina shipwright who told him: “It’s a problem, sir. They want us to make all-electric boats.

“The problem is the boat is so heavy it can’t float. Also, it can’t go fast because of the weight.”

Trump continued: “So I said, ‘Let me ask you a question,’ and [the official] said, ‘Nobody ever asked this question,’ and it must be because of MIT, my relationship to MIT – very smart.

“I say, ‘What would happen if the boat sank from its weight? And you’re in the boat and you have this tremendously powerful battery and the battery is now underwater and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?’”

At this point, the former president broke off at a tangent, asking: “By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately, do you notice that, a lot of sharks?”

Eventually reverting to his original point, Trump continued: “So I said, so there’s a shark 10 yards away from the