It won’t surprise many that “Super Tuesday” is the top U.S. election term being Googled by Canadians, but the number two most-search term might raise a few eyebrows: Donald Drumpf.
The word “Drumpf” has been trending on social media since Sunday, when comedian John Oliver made fun of the origin of the Republican front-runner’s surname on his show Last Week Tonight.
Oliver referenced Trump biographer Gwenda Blair, who pointed out in her book “The Trumps” that the famous billionaire’s name is an Anglicization of the German surname ‘Drumpf,’ a change that happened sometime after The Donald’s paternal grandparents emigrated from Germany in 1885.
“Trump evokes trump card, trump hand, trump suit -- all terms associated with winning,” Blair wrote. “Whether Donald Trump could have had the same success with any other name is an intriguing question.”
Oliver compared the name Drumpf to “the sound produced when a morbidly obese pigeon flies into the window of a foreclosed Old Navy.”
He urged Americans to stop “getting blinded by the magic of his name,” and announced online sales of hats online with the slogan “Make Donald Drumpf Again,” a play on Trump’s mantra, “Make America Great Again.”
The #3 term Canadians are searching for is “Marco Rubio,” who is expected to come second or third in most states that vote Tuesday. For some reason, Ted Cruz -- who is virtually tied in the polls with Rubio -- isn’t even in the top 50 most-Googled terms.
The fourth most popular term is “drumpf” (see above).
The fifth most popular is “David Duke,” who is a former leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon.
That’s trending because when Trump was asked Sunday on CNN whether he rejected an endorsement from Duke and other white supremacists, he answered “I don't know anything about David Duke. OK? … I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists."
Trump faced widespread criticism for suggesting he didn’t know Duke, and for not clearly disavowing an endorsement from a racist. Many pointed out Trump had written a New York Times op-ed in 2000 that specifically mentioned David Duke as “not company I wish to keep.”
Trump later said he had disavowed the Duke endorsement before speaking with CNN, and he did so again on Twitter.
The Democrats are choosing between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Tuesday, but that is generating far less interest from Canadians than the Republican race. “Hillary” and “Bernie” aren’t even in the top 25 trending U.S. election terms, according to Google.
