Google’s annual search-trend report has landed with an ego-bruising twist for a man who likes to imagine himself as the country’s gravitational center.
President Donald Trump, who topped last year’s list of trending “people” in the United States, was nowhere in the 2025 ranking, globally or domestically—a chart built not on raw popularity but on which searches “had the highest spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2025 as compared to 2024.”
The list instead elevated a mix of activists, entertainers, athletes, and political figures, including a staffer who works several rungs below Trump at the White House.
Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, ranked eighth on Google’s top trending searches list, which also included New York Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani, alleged Charlie Kirk killer Tyler Robinson, rapper d4vd, Kirk’s widow Erika, Trump-bashing Pope Leo XIV, footballer Shedeur Sanders, adult entertainer Bonnie Blue, tech CEO Andy Byron, and the president’s nemesis (one of many) Jimmy Kimmel.
Trump has gushed over Leavitt and described her as a “star” within the administration, while her sycophantic approach to holding the MAGA line has frustrated some members of the press.
Her performance has even attracted international admirers, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban making a tongue-in-cheek attempt to poach her last month. She declined.
For a figure obsessed with dominance like Trump—in polling, headlines, crowd sizes, and television ratings—seeing Mamdani and Kimmel land spots on the list might sting. Mamdani’s rise as a legislative firebrand puts him in the category of the young, attention-magnet critics Trump has long dismissed but clearly tracks.
The inclusion on the list of Kimmel, who routinely taunts him on air, offers another irritation: Even late-night mockery apparently outperformed Trump’s own newsmaking.
Last year’s trending roster read more like something he’d boast about. It began with his name at the top, followed by Catherine, Princess of Wales; Kamala Harris; Olympic boxer Imane Khelif; and Joe Biden—a familiar mix of rivals, foils, and global celebrities. The 2025 list suggests shifting consumer curiosity that didn’t break in his favor, even as he continues to generate constant news coverage.
Google emphasizes that trending lists are not the most-searched people overall, but those who saw the greatest year-over-year interest growth. That means Trump’s baseline attention may remain enormous, but it didn’t surge in the same way as the newcomers and antagonists who dominated this year’s chatter.
The presence of Leavitt in particular draws a sharp contrast. She now registers as one of the year’s biggest breakout figures, climbing into a national list that left Trump off entirely.
Searches for Kirk, meanwhile, spiked after his assassination on Sept. 10, 2025. The killing sparked intense national and global interest and became the most searched topic on Google over the last year.
Trump did get some interest via his One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This was a trending U.S. legislative topic at times, while also dominating the news cycle. Trump’s tariffs and the government shutdown, too, piqued interest. Mamdani becoming the mayor of Trump’s hometown, and his battles with the president, also saw him surge into the fold.
Another Trump-aligned topic dominated chatter for a while, too: the FIFA Club World Cup, where Trump gatecrashed the trophy-lifting ceremony.
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