--- title: Trump Is a Better Community Organizer Than Obama Ever Was description: Barack Obama’s skills at building a movement may have a rival in Donald Trump, who has been building a fraternity of grievance and community of wrongs since his November loss. canonical: https://time.com/6079203/donald-trump-lawsuits-facebook-google-twitter/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-07-09T18:01:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T10:06:17.370Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Is a Better Community Organizer Than Obama Ever Was og:description: Barack Obama’s skills at building a movement may have a rival in Donald Trump, who has been building a fraternity of grievance and community of wrongs since his November loss. og:url: https://time.com/6079203/donald-trump-lawsuits-facebook-google-twitter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54cb9539936dfd3f/698a1afd01168229d2980c65/GettyImages-1233864204.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Former President Donald J. Trump files class action lawsuits against social media companies. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Is a Better Community Organizer Than Obama Ever Was twitter:description: Barack Obama’s skills at building a movement may have a rival in Donald Trump, who has been building a fraternity of grievance and community of wrongs since his November loss. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54cb9539936dfd3f/698a1afd01168229d2980c65/GettyImages-1233864204.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Is a Better Community Organizer Than Barack Obama Ever Was > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Jul 9, 2021 6:01 PM UTC  Former President Donald Trump speaks about filing lawsuits targeting Facebook, Google and Twitter and their CEOs at the Trump National Golf Club on in Bedminster, NJ, on July 07, 2021. Former President Donald Trump speaks about filing lawsuits targeting Facebook, Google and Twitter and their CEOs at the Trump National Golf Club on in Bedminster, NJ, on July 07, 2021. Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/ Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Jul 9, 2021 6:01 PM UTC _This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletter%5Fopt-in?qs=3a19a0aa35903a2d9f214b74f69a37910b58de73cf3f2b89adc123fac024f0478c72f91010ae9d01f08f46c616068cab3e74726837cd2cce70dac3796e46c2b4) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday._ For years, there was always a tweet. At least until there wasn’t. In 2014, as tensions were aflame in Ferguson, Mo., after the shooting of Michael Brown, then-private citizen Donald Trump took to Twitter to mock the President. “Obama is community organizing from the Oval Office on Ferguson today,” Trump [tweeted](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/01/these-old-quotes-trump-make-his-attacks-biden-look-even-more-pathetic/) with typical contempt and obvious amplification of conservatives’ favorite ding of Obama as an activist. “More riots sure to follow.” I’d link to the original tweet, but Trump is now [banned](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/07/trump-lawsuit-social-media/) from the platform, which is precisely why we care about this right now at The D.C. Brief. Back then, “community organizing” was a shorthanded criticism of Obama’s non-traditional pathway to the White House and an unsubtle smack against the process of building communities and using a sense of unity to force change. It also gave Obama’s detractors permission to ignore his history-making win, his best-selling memoir and his formidable political talent — potentially a once-a-generation skill that has made everyone who came after seem amateur. ([“Thanks, Obama”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/02/13/thanks-obama-the-evolution-of-a-meme-that-defined-a-presidency/) has a different resonance among the next generation leaders who struggle to match his aptitude.) But Trump, a leader of the [Birther](https://time.com/4496913/donald-trump-barack-obama-birther/) Movement against Obama and considering yet another White House run of his own, just wanted to feed the beast that was his online following, revving up for a future White House run. Well, it turns out Obama’s skills at building a movement may have a rival in Trump, whose time following his decisive November loss has been spent building a fraternity of grievance and community of wrongs. Just witness the [Jan. 6](https://time.com/6052664/republicans-capitol-riot-commission/) insurrection at the Capitol, an event that ultimately got him booted from the social media platforms he once used to troll enemies. Trump’s [return](https://time.com/6076540/donald-trump-ohio-president-norms/) to rallies portends more of the same Make America Great Again fantasy that keeps fact-checkers in business. As he’s told friends and hinted to supporters, he seems to think he’s going to be [reinstated](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-04/donald-trump-s-planned-return-isn-t-really-a-joke) as the President of the United States by some miraculous fiat. This week, Trump stretched our incredulity once again, even while under legal scrutiny from [prosecutors](https://time.com/6077542/donald-trump-allen-weisselberg/) in New York. From his private club in Bedminster, N.J., he [announced](https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-sues-facebook-google-twitter-class-action-lawsuits-sure-fail-ncna1273289) on Wednesday he would be suing Facebook, Twitter and Google—and their leaders—for [booting](https://time.com/6046366/trump-facebook-suspension-oversight-board/) him from the platforms. The tech platforms independently decided that the risk of giving Trump back the keys to the kingdom was no longer worth the millions they reaped in advertising revenue for his presence on them. It’s not a corporation’s responsibility to protect anyone’s Free Speech rights. The Trump [lawsuits](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/trump-lawsuits-against-facebook-and-twitter-are-fantasy/619378/) against Big Tech aren’t meant to win. They are meant to fundraise, which is why the Republican Party’s campaign arms amplified this message and much of Washington just shrugged when Trump filed the suit. The former President’s [op-ed](https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-j-trump-why-im-suing-big-tech-11625761897) today The Wall Street Journal is only marginally more cogent than his Wednesday press conference. As if to drive home the lack-of-seriousness of his efforts, he filed the suits in the Southern District of Florida—not the California jurisdictions that Facebook’s [terms of service](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a36957398/trump-facebook-twitter-google-class-action-lawsuit/) agreements require when anyone signed up, be it you, me or the Pope, whom Trump once assaulted via Twitter. Trump is the [master](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/07/why-trump-is-taking-unusual-step-actually-filing-lawsuit-he-had-threatened/) of using a lawsuit as a proxy for press releases. The suits here are meant to engender [baseless](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/feb/01/facebook-youtube-twitter-anti-conservative-claims-baseless-report-finds) grievances that social media companies silence conservatives, and whip up more animosity against the Silicon Valley elite among his supporters. It’s Community Organizing 101: There’s almost [no way](https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/07/trump-twitter-facebook-youtube-lawsuits-section-230-first-amendment/) Trump will get his log-in credentials back on his social accounts, but there is a way that he convinces his loyalists that they should step in on his behalf and flood the platforms with his [foolishness](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/us/politics/trump-lawsuit-facebook-google-twitter.html) and [victimhood](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/07/trump-social-media-lawsuit). And maybe even vote for him again, should he choose to run in 2024 as he’s said he might. After all, as Obama showed us, one voice can [change a room](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AhRqg0ADbk), but one room can change a country. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter._](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/politics?source=dc%5Farticle) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6079203/donald-trump-lawsuits-facebook-google-twitter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6079203/donald-trump-lawsuits-facebook-google-twitter/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Is a Better Community Organizer Than Barack Obama Ever Was","datePublished":"2021-07-09T18:01:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T10:06:17.370Z","description":"Barack Obama’s skills at building a movement may have a rival in Donald Trump, who has been building a fraternity of grievance and community of wrongs since his November loss.","url":"https://time.com/6079203/donald-trump-lawsuits-facebook-google-twitter/","keywords":["The D.C. 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