Googling oneself can turn up some pretty astounding results: abandoned MySpace pages, uncomfortable snapshots we didn't know existed, and perhaps "National Left-Wing Media."
The latter is apparently what President Trump found when he searched the term "Trump News," per a Tuesday morning tweet. And now Trump's personal qualm with Google search results is sparking some form of federal inquiry, The Washington Post reports.
On Tuesday, Trump double-tweeted his dismay with finding that "96 percent of (Google) results on 'Trump News' are from National Left-Wing Media." It's not clear how Trump's seemingly anecdotal evidence produced that number, though it may have come from a right-wing blog. Nevertheless, the president declared that lack of "Republican/Conservative & Fair Media" means Google's results page is "RIGGED," and he went so far to question if it was "illegal."
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White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow took Trump's tweeted promise to address this "serious situation" a step further. When asked if Trump thinks Google should be regulated, Kudlow told reporters Tuesday that "we're taking a look at it," per the Post. Stock in Google parent company Alphabet promptly sunk in pre-market trading, Bloomberg's Lisa Abramowicz pointed out in a tweet.
As The Toronto Star's Daniel Dale points out, the president's complaint appears to be rooted in the fact "that the news tab for Trump brings up ... news sites ... rather than right-wing opinion sites." In a statement, Google said it strives to "make sure [users] receive the most relevant answers in a matter of seconds."
If only we could all call out Google for reupping our embarrassing Facebook post from 2008.
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