Trump 2020 campaign manager ‘checking out’ alternative conservative-friendly social network: report

President Trump’s 2020 campaign manager is reportedly scouting a social media site aimed at a conservative audience for a potential new platform for the Trump campaign.

Politico reported Tuesday that Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is considering creating an account for Trump on the social media platform Parler, which has attracted right-wing activists banned from other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

{mosads}“It’s something he’s aware of and is checking out,” one campaign official told Politico. “We don’t currently have a plan to make a big move to the platform.”

The site, a sort of hybrid of Twitter’s feed and Reddit’s upvote/downvote system, is currently home to several right-wing activists such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer, who previously were banned from most mainstream social media platforms for violating their policies.

Parler remains smaller than Gab, a similar social media platform that also caters to an audience of largely right-leaning users who distrust larger social media platforms or have been removed from them.

Gab boasts more than a million users, compared to about 100,000 for Parler, according to the two sites’ founders. Gab founder Andrew Torba indicated a rivalry between the two social networks in a statement to Politico, calling its competitor a “ghost town.”

Gab’s association with the “alt-right” and white nationalists, however, has led to mainstream figures and celebrities avoiding the platform, and the president does not have an account on its site.

But the Trump campaign won’t be leaving traditional social media behind just yet. A senior campaign official told Politico that the Trump campaign plans to continue investing in Facebook and other platforms even as the president has railed against supposed “censorship” of conservatives on the platforms.

“We’re a significant advertiser so we make sure our viewpoint is heard,” the official said.