On December 12, 2018, a screenshot of a tweet attributed to Stephen King began circulating on Facebook and other social sites. It read:
Fuck your wall. Split that 5 billion between at-risk children who don’t have lunches and vets who can’t get proper medical and psychological treatment. Fuck your vanity project. Do something good for once.
The tweet appeared to be referencing a strange memo published by the Department of Homeland Security. Its message was popular in screenshot form on Facebook, where it circulated without a link to Twitter.
Consequently, some users wondered whether the commentary was fabricated or attributed to a well-known author to boost its credibility. But it was easy to locate the original tweet on King’s Twitter timeline:
Fuck your wall. Split that 5 billion between at-risk children who don’t have lunches and vets who can’t get proper medical and psychological treatment. Fuck your vanity project. Do something good for once.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) December 12, 2018
The screenshots show an authentic tweet by King and that was accurately transmitted. King did not expressly reference DHS’ “Walls Work” memo, but it’s likely that it spurred his tweet critical of the controversial project