'Where is Singapore?' Google search spikes as Americans curious about where Trump is

Trump putting Singapore on American minds.

Belmont Lay | June 11, 2018, 06:55 PM

The most common statistic thrown around the past several years generalising the majority of Americans has been: Only 36 percent of Americans own a valid passport, which means 64 percent of them have not travelled abroad before.

So, it is no surprise Americans are googling for information about where Singapore is as a result of Trump-Kim summit -- because they probably didn't even know it existed, or if they did, believe it is in China.

Americans googling hard about Singapore

Google Trends is showing a sharp spike in searches for “Where is Singapore?” since the Trump-Kim summit was announced as a thing on May 10 2018.

In the week between May 6 to 12, the search for "Where is Singapore?" surged:

This is compared to the search term, "Where is Singapore located?", which has been a more stable search over the past year.

The top five states googling hard are: Tennessee (Voted Trump), Connecticut (Voted Clinton), Georgia (Voted Trump), Kentucky (Voted Trump) and Virginia (Voted Clinton).

Trump specific Google search by supporters

The search term "Trump Singapore" also saw a same surge:

However, including "Trump" in the search term is more a preoccupation of his supporters, who are curious about what the person they voted for is getting up to.

This is evident as the top five states are: Tennessee (Voted Trump), Kentucky (Voted Trump), Connecticut (Voted Clinton), Iowa (Voted Trump) and Alabama (Voted Trump).

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Would Kim have met Hilary Clinton?

So, this also raises an interesting question: Would Hilary Clinton have met Kim Jong-un had she won the 2016 US presidential election instead?

Known as a foreign policy hawk who is more predictable in her approach to rogue nations, Kim might not have been as eager to deal with her than with an unconventional US president, such as Trump, who has since taking office, broken with many past practices and traditions.

It is an interesting prospect.