Whoever owns donaldtrumpsucks.com must really hate Donald Trump, right? Wrong! It's the Don himself.
The same goes for no2trump.com, trumpmustgo.com and two dozen other web addresses that sound like they're bashing the billionaire Republican presidential nominee, his business interests or his political aspirations.
What would Trump want with such insulting domains? Easy. To make sure his critics and rivals can't have them.
He and his Trump Organisation own more than 3,600 web addresses, according to the research firm DomainIQ. The vast majority bear the names of his properties, products and progeny. There are 274 domains alone featuring the name of Trump's daughter Ivanka.
And then there are the ones that seem better suited for the anti-Trump crowd: eight domains ending in "scheme," eight ending in "fraud" and eight ending in "sucks."
It is common for businesses and celebrities to scoop up and sit on web addresses that could be used to mock or attack them.
"Domains are cheap," branding expert Rebecca Lieb said. "Mopping up when somebody acquires a domain and does something malicious with it is expensive."
Trump's collection of web addresses good and bad is far more extensive than that of any candidate before. He and the Trump Organisation own a few hundred more than Target or General Motors.
Hillary Clinton's campaign owns 70, according to DomainIQ, though none appear to be the kind of derogatory names Trump has registered. Her family's foundation owns 214 domains.
But despite Trump's efforts, some of his tormentors have beaten him to the punch.
Chris Puchowicz bought trump.org for $US1,272 ($A1,662) at an auction in 2012 and snagged trump.tv for $US251 a few months later. The Trump Organisation didn't make a bid, he said, but its lawyers later threatened a lawsuit. Puchowicz still owns the domains and has used them to post an anti-Trump rant.
Brian Lam, a software engineering student in St. Louis, spent $US9 to register votefortrumppence.com. He then posted a photo of himself giving the finger to the camera over the words "Just Kidding."
But all is not lost. Trump still owns ilovedonaldtrump.com.
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