After British comedian John Oliver's wildly popular takedown of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, Google searches for ‘Donald Drumpf’ skyrocketed on Super Tuesday, the same day Trump made major gains. In the US presidential elections, Super Tuesday is the day the largest number of states (eleven) hold their nominating contests for both the Republican and Democratic candidates.
The New York Times reported that the search trend was the result of Oliver's comedy show “Last Week Tonight’, where he told his viewers not to get swayed by the weight that the surname Trump appears to carry, as that is not even the New York real estate tycoon's real one. He informed the audience that a prescient ancestor of Trump changed the family name from Drumpf when he emigrated from Germany in 1885.
Ever since Oliver launched the #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain campaign on February 29, Drumpf has been the most searched for term on Google related to the elections, leaving behind Donald Trump himself, as well as his rivals – Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Trump, who is known for dismissing criticism, often with just an “it’s stupid” argument, has not reacted to the show or the online campaign so far.
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