Trump dominates Google during debate

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is dominating Google searches during Thursday night’s GOP debate, despite not being on the stage.

The debate is sponsored by Fox News and Google. 

Minute by minute US Google search volume. Trump dominating. pic.twitter.com/FaXTBuvqWx

— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) January 29, 2016

Trump is not on stage … but he is still top searched candidate in every state across U.S., per Google. #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/0x1G6MfrJh

— Teddy Davis (@TeddyDavisCNN) January 29, 2016

Trump announced earlier this week he wouldn’t attend the event, just four days before the Iowa caucuses, claiming he was treated unfairly by Fox News. The network sent out a press release earlier this week mocking the billionaire businessman, who has had a long feud with Fox anchor Megyn Kelly.

Instead of attending the debate, Trump is holding his own event at the same time to raise money for veterans.

{mosads}Trump is by far the most Google-searched candidate even in the lead up to the 9 p.m. debate. Other candidates who are on the stage Thursday have had far less traffic than Trump.

He’s been leading the polls both nationally and in Iowa. He leads his closest rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, in Iowa by 6.8 points, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls.