The King in All The King's Men

Who is the "King" in “All the King’s Men”?

Willie Stark, a megalomaniacal Southern U.S. politician of the 1940s portrayed by Broderick Crawford in his Academy Award-winning role in the motion picture directed, produced, and written by Robert Rossen.

The film is adapted from the novel of the same title by Robert Penn Warren, who based Willie Stark on Louisiana's populist governor, Huey Long, who rose to prominence with a combination of straight talk, brutish politics, and unconcealed self-interest much like Donald Trump.