A worker, left, removes the signage from the United States Agency for International Development on the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Feb.7. The discarded letters are seen at right. Google Trends noted an alarming uptick in troubling search terms in the D.C. area after the move. (Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images; Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images)
By Michael Schwarz February 19, 2025 at 3:35pm
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.
For the sake of evaluating those searches and their potential meanings, the timeline of events makes a big difference.
On Feb. 3, the Trump administration froze USAID’s budget and closed its headquarters. Congressional Democrats responded with fits of apoplexy. They even tried in vain to enter USAID headquarters.
By the next morning, the establishment’s outrage over USAID had only intensified. Billionaire software monopolist and phony would-be scientist Bill Gates appeared on ABC’s “The View” to complain to that table full of cackling hens that the closing of USAID could imperil some of his totally selfless and humanitarian work related to vaccines.
Finally, by Feb. 5 the loud objections from Democrats and other establishment voices had proven definitively futile.
On that date, the volume of Internet searches for “anger,” “rage,” “dread,” “revenge,” and “suicide” skyrocketed in the D.C. area, according to Google Trends.
Of course, to understand the meaning of that data, one must understand how the Google Trends aggregator works.
Is it disturbing that the people our government relies on resort to searching for “suicide” and “revenge” when a wasteful program gets closed?
On Google Trends, one may gauge the relative level of interest in specific search terms across a set period of time in a particular metropolitan area.
The aggregator does not show the absolute number of relevant searches. Instead, it draws samples, creates a scale, and allows for comparisons.
“The resulting numbers are then scaled on a range of 0 to 100 based on a topic’s proportion to all searches on all topics,” according to Google.
For instance, a value of 100 represents peak popularity. That should alarm us, for the term “suicide” reached a value of 100 in the D.C. area on Feb. 10.
Crucially, none of those five search words, including “suicide,” even registered on the Google Trends scale before Feb. 5.
Furthermore, if “anger,” “rage,” and “dread” strike the reader as overly generic terms, do not worry. We can get more specific.
In recent days, pollster Mark Mitchell of Rasmussen Reports has posted similar D.C.-area Google Trends data on X.
Mitchell’s posts have shown that on or around Feb. 5, D.C.-area residents took a sudden interest in words such as “firearm” and “defect.”
HEY DC:
Why did you frantically start searching “firearm” last week? pic.twitter.com/NKEdr06w1a— Mark Mitchell, Rasmussen Reports (@Mark_R_Mitchell) February 19, 2025
Now ain’t THAT something: pic.twitter.com/nRv4TNfOdE
— Mark Mitchell, Rasmussen Reports (@Mark_R_Mitchell) February 19, 2025
On Tuesday, Mitchell noted a “sudden spike in DC searches for criminal defense lawyers, extradition, treason, death penalty, listing houses, and even immunity,” all of which he attributed to the swearing-in of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
In case you were wondering, the sudden spike in DC searches for criminal defense lawyers, extradition, treason, death penalty, listing houses, and even immunity…
aligns with @PamBondi ‘s swearing in. https://t.co/VYL0m3fXMX
— Mark Mitchell, Rasmussen Reports (@Mark_R_Mitchell) February 18, 2025
All of this apparent panic reflects one of the most important and least appreciated facts in recent American history.
According to U.S. News & World Report, D.C.-area suburbs account for four of America’s six wealthiest counties by median household income.
What do the people of that area do to generate wealth? Do they create anything that has value? How do they grow so rich?
One possible answer lies in the nefarious activities of USAID.
Some have described that agency, which has funded jaw-droppingly indefensible projects overseas, as a giant money-laundering operation.
During a speech in the Oval Office following his Senate confirmation Thursday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. thanked Trump for destroying USAID.
“It has been captured by the military-industrial complex,” the secretary said of USAID, an agency created by his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, in 1961, and long since diverted from its original humanitarian mission. “It has become a sinister propagator of totalitarianism across — and war — across the globe. And very few people understand how sinister this agency really is.”
In other words, judging by Google searches in the D.C. area, RFK Jr. told the truth about USAID.
Moreover, those scurrying establishment rats have panicked in their quest to escape the sinking ship, which suggests that many of them knew what they were doing all along.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
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