Donald Trump’s beef with social-media giants is well-documented—just last month, he brought Twitter C.E.O. Jack Dorsey to the White House to whine about the dip in his following that’s supposedly due to anti-conservative bias. Yet despite his gripes, and the gripes of his far-right allies over the de-platforming of people like Alex Jones, Twitter has remained the president’s megaphone of choice. That’s in part because no platform rivals the reach of Twitter, where Trump can broadcast his every thought to millions of people in seconds. But a new report suggests the president’s aides are pushing him to lend his online clout to a Twitter competitor, raising the specter of a social-media ecosystem that’s even more deeply polarized.

According to Politico, Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale is weighing setting up a presidential account on Parler, a Twitter-style site that controversial conservatives, exiled from larger platforms and leery of censorship, have begun to adopt. “It’s something [Parscale is] aware of and is checking out,” a Trump campaign official said of Parler, which has attracted right-wing notables like Milo Yiannopoulos and Candace Owens. (Owens herself endorsed the idea: “Donald Trump should just switch social media platforms altogether because everyone will follow him,”she told Politico.) Per the campaign official, there’s currently no plan to “make a big move to the platform.” But Parscale and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Trump ally, have both created Parler accounts and started posting on the site.

The president and his allies have complained increasingly loudly about the supposed “shadow-banning” of conservatives on social media. “Facebook, Twitter and Google are so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous!” Trump tweeted in December without a hint of irony. “When is Twitter going to allow the very popular Conservative Voices that it has so viciously shut down, back into the OPEN?” he demanded more recently. If Trump were to migrate to Parler, or at least include it in his daily rage-posting, it would certainly attract a great deal of attention to the upstart platform, and would likely increase its usership. It could also worsen polarization, creating a scenario in which Democrats and Republicans don’t merely talk over one another online, but occupy different digital spaces entirely.

Of course, it’s unclear if Trump would actually make the switch. For all his whining, Twitter likely gave him a leg-up 2016, and will almost certainly play a major role in his 2020 re-election bid. (He’s already begun using it to test out nicknames for his competitors.) Moreover, he tends to complain about the establishment while desperately seeking its approval. He rails about the mainstream media—the “failing” New York Times, “fake news” CNN—while basking in the glow of constant coverage. He rallies supporters against the “swamp” even as he relies on the complicity of people like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham to advance his agenda. In the social-media world, Facebook and Twitter are the establishment. And though Trump may grumble about how “VERY UNFAIR” they are, it’s a decent bet he’ll stick with them.

Still, the threat alone could be useful in his war against the social-media giants. Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg have already shown themselves to be clumsy in their attempts to purge their platforms of hateful content, and nervous about stepping on conservatives’ toes in the process. At his big White House sit-down, Dorsey reportedly did his best to reassure Trump that he’s not trying to purge his supporters from the site. As Trump’s Twitter engagement declines, he and his advisers may be more inclined to look elsewhere for ways to make an impact. And the president’s threat to lead conservatives astray could make the likes of Dorsey even more skittish.

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