EXECUTIVE ORDERS: This is a comparison of Google search terms worldwide corresponding to a selection of President Donald Trump’s recent executive actions. For the most part, spikes in the graph for each topic correlate to when Trump issued the action. For example, on Monday, Jan. 23, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. The yellow line, representing the search term TPP, was relatively high on Monday and Tuesday. The next day, Trump signed an executive order authorizing two previously-blocked pipeline projects. The first news articles emerged at lunchtime Tuesday, Jan. 24, and by 1 p.m. “Pipeline” searches had spiked. Also on Tuesday, Trump signed an order eliminating funding for NGOs that provide abortions — “abortion” spiked with TPP. Searches for “Obamacare” seem relatively low — but Trump’s executive order relieving the burdens of the Affordable Care Act took place on the day of his inauguration, a few days before the parameters I set for this graph. The most dramatic spike came on Saturday, Jan. 28, the day after Trump signed an executive order banning nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. Protests cropped up across the U.S., and searches for “immigration” soared.
TRANSITIONS: This is a comparison of Google Search terms in Italy of U.S. President Donald Trump, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and recently-appointed Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. The red spike of searches of Renzi corresponds to a constitutional referendum which took place on Dec. 4, 2016. The referendum, which was supposed to streamline the size of the national legislature, failed, and Renzi resigned several days later. Renzi’s spike in searches is dwarfed, however, by searches for “Donald Trump” in early November 2016 — the day after his election. By comparison, searches for Paolo Gentiloni on the day he was appointed Prime Minister represent just a sad yellow blip. As Trump took office this January and his executive actions caught the world’s attention, searches for his name crept up again.
