Believe it or not, Donald Trump has 3,643 websites domain to his name

Tuesday, 21 February 2017

According to internet records gathered by CNN, before US president, Donald Trump reached the White House, his company had laid claim to at least 3,643 website domains. The buying spree continued as he ran for president. Trump bought 93 of them after he launched his presidential campaign.

One was TrumpEmpire.com. That domain had belonged to a Mexican cybersquatter. Luis Jorge O'Brien bought TrumpEmpire for $10 in April 2015 hoping that someday he'd be able to cash in on the property. When no deal came around, he didn't bother to renew it.

O'Brien didn't know that Trump had snapped it up in June 2016 until he was told recently by CNNMoney.

CNNMoney investigated 20 years of internet records using DomainTools, which tracks registrations and transfers. Some are obvious choices he acquired long ago, like TrumpOrganization.com and TrumpBuilding.org.

But Trump has also grabbed names that could be used against him, including TrumpFraud.org and TrumpScam.com.

Trump has a history of buying site names before he needs them.

For example, he bought TrumpNetwork.com in 2007 in preparation to launch a multi-level marketing company.

In the months before he launched Trump Network in 2009, he acquired TrumpMultiLevelMarkeing.com, TrumpNetworkFraud.com, TrumpNetworkPyramidScheme.com, TrumpNetworkPonziScheme.com and 15 similar iterations. 

Trump took similar measures to defend Trump University. 

He registered 157 versions for related operations across the United States and Puerto Rico. The for-profit series of real estate seminars was accused of fraud in 2010, and it closed in 2011.

Trump also bought ImBeingSuedByTheDonald.com in 2009. In 2012, the Trump Organization acquired  VoteAgainstTrump.com,  TrumpMustGo.com, and NoMoreTrump.com.

A few years later, Trump grabbed  MakeAmericaGreatAgain.vote and MakeAmericaGreatAgain.us.

Those purchases came two months before he announced his second presidential run in June 2015.

According to internet records, the registrant information for all of these 3,643 domains point back to The Trump Organization's general counsel. The listed contact information is an email address for the company's legal team.

The vast majority are just blank pages. Only 50 of these domains are unique websites for Trump businesses. Another 400 redirect you to Trump websites. And a handful take you to weird destinations.

His first website? DonaldjTrump.com, bought on January 20, 1997.