Aaron Sorkin Clarifies He “Was Never Asked” To Omit Trump From ‘The Social Reckoning’ But Film Is “Not A Red-Blue Thing”

Although Facebook has played a big role in recent U.S. politics, Aaron Sorkin didn’t want to make The Social Reckoning a political statement.

The Oscar winner noted that although he “was never asked” to omit Trump from his upcoming movie about a young Facebook whistleblower, which premieres Oct. 9, he didn’t want the film to become “a red-blue thing.”

“I want to be clear: I was never asked to do that, to not mention Trump by name. I turned in the script and a day or two later met with Tom Rothman, who was full speed ahead on it,” he told Vanity Fair. “And I promised him, unprovoked, that we would not see any Trump signage, no ‘Make America Great Again.'”

Sorkin continued, “The movie is about Facebook’s role and the rise of divisiveness, extremism, and hyper-partisanship in the country. It is not a red-blue thing, even though, obviously, it will be felt that way.”

After The Social Network (2010) recounted Mark Zuckerberg’s creation of Facebook and the controversy that ensued, screenwriter Sorkin returned to write and direct the upcoming sequel, which focuses on a 2021 document leak that exposed harm Facebook caused on society.

In The Social Reckoning, Facebook engineer Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) goes to Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) with the social media platform’s most guarded secrets. Jeremy Strong, Bill Burr, Wunmi Mosaku, Billy Magnussen and Betty Gilpin also star.