Taylor Swift Scores Win Over Donald Trump

Public interest in Donald Trump remains at an all-time high, but even the former president can't beat Taylor Swift in the popularity stakes.

An analysis of Google Trends data for 2023 found that very few people or topics could hold the attention of the American public quite like Trump or Swift.

The singer managed to dominate Google searches all year, even when other breaking news events became hot topics of interest. Swift had the average highest score of any person, according to the research by news site Axios.

Her record-breaking Eras tour, its subsequent box office smashing concert movie, the re-release of some of her albums and new relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce helped keep her at the top of internet searches.

Even though Trump gave Swift a run for her money with the number of searches, he did not rate as high as the "Bad Blood" singer.

However, Trump did claim the distinction of being the only person or topic to make the top five for both the biggest moment and most consistent interest in 2023.

In third place behind Trump and Swift was Ukraine while President Joe Biden came in fourth.

Other steady performers for Google searches included Beyoncé, NBA star LeBron James and Israel. Their search interest never fell to zero for all of 2023.

To gather the data, Axios analyzed 50 Google search terms for its research which it said was necessary to "separate intense but flee[t]ing interest from the few people and moments that actually captured widespread attention from a divided and distracted America."

The top five searched events of the year included Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who collapsed on field in January after suffering a cardiac arrest. The incident took up the most Google searches in a single week.

Hamlin even managed to beat Swift's beau, Kelce, as the most searched athlete for the year.

Israel was the second most searched event following the October 7 surprise Hamas attack which has seen Israel's military engage in war in Gaza ever since.

More recently, the death of Friends actor Matthew Perry dominated Google searches as people tried to learn more about his life and death. Perry was found dead in the hot tub at his Californian home in October, with a coroner ruling he died from "acute effects of ketamine," which led to a cardiac incident and eventual drowning.

Finally in fifth place, Trump tied with the Barbie movie. People searching for his first and final arraignments helped get him into the top five of searched events for the year.

Barbie is the highest-grossing movie in the world this year, gaining credit for being part of a trend which saw women-led projects dominating the world of entertainment and generating billions of dollars for the economy.

Trump, frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, was indicted in four criminal cases and faces a total of 91 felony charges.

The charges include election interference, falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels and mishandling of sensitive government documents. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The Google search statistics are not the only time Swift has beaten Trump this year. She was named Time magazine's 'Person of the Year,' for her "shooting art and commerce together to release an energy of historic force."

But Trump was not happy with the decision and shared an article arguing why he should have received the honor instead.

Trump posted a DC Enquirer article to his Truth Social platform earlier this written by Reed Cooper, who claimed the former president was a more deserving recipient because "he has been successful at quite literally everything he's ever tried throughout his life."