While no one should confuse Internet search data with mind reading, that data can yield interesting and even unsettling insights.
For instance, how might one reconstruct the thoughts of a blindsided and panicked Washington, D.C.-area bureaucrat?
According to the data aggregator Google Trends, Internet searches for a wide array of alarming words and topics surged in the D.C. area beginning around Feb. 5, the date by which, as events showed, President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, had driven a proverbial stake through the heart of the deeply sinister United States Agency for International Development.
Trending: President Trump: “I Want To See Gaza Wiped Out. I Don’t Want To See Even One Building Standing.”
For the sake of evaluating those searches and their potential meanings, the timeline of events makes a big difference.
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!