In another jab at Jeb Bush, Donald Trump is taking on the establishment GOP candidate by purchasing Mr. Bush’s namesake online and redirecting the search to his own campaign website.
If an online searcher goes to www.jebbush.com, instead of going to a site that describes the former Florida governor and his quest for the White House, it redirects to Mr. Trump’s campaign website, which promises to “Make America Great Again.”
Mr. Trump has dug into his criticism of Mr. Bush, and his brother, former President George W. Bush, which he initiated in Saturday night’s GOP debate, where Mr. Trump questioned the Bush administration’s decision to enter the Iraq War and reminded viewers that the World Trade Center fell during Mr. Bush’s term.
During an interview on ABC’s “This Week”, Mr. Trump doubled down on the attacks, saying the former president “did a terrible thing,” invading Iraq and criticized other Republicans for being too “politically correct” in not opening this line of questioning.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks told the Wall Street Journal that they’re not responsible for JebBush.com, though no doubt they’re quietly thanking whoever is. (The page’s current owner has been kept private by domain registrar Fabulous.com.)
Two other domain names that incorporate Jeb Bush’s name and the word president already exist, but aren’t operated by his campaign.
JebBushforPresident.com is a blog about a gay couple who owns the website and JebBushforPresident.net is used to oppose Bush’s record. That website says it was updated on Dec. 7.
Although this new trend of people redirecting and falsely naming websites is annoying and confusing, unfortunately it’s becoming more common than ever. While most websites’ URL still match up with their content, don’t always expect it to like in these particular cases involving presidential hopeful Jeb Bush’s name.