Internet trolls redirected a fake website for Ahmad Rahami's family business to Trump's

Impact

Someone registered a domain in the name of New York and New Jersey bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami's family restaurant and redirected the page to the website of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday.

Rahami, who was arrested on suspicion of laying bombs at a race in New Jersey which hurt no one and another in New York's Chelsea district which wounded 30 following a gunfight with police, is the son of Muhammad Rahami, who manages the First American Fried Chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey. On Monday, the URL www.firstamericanfriedchicken.com was set up via web registration services GoDaddy and Domains By Proxy LLC, and shortly thereafter, that domain began redirecting users to www.donaldjtrump.com.

It's somewhat unclear what message was intended for, though it was likely motivated by a desire to promote Trump's campaign and tough-on-terrorism message.

While some Twitter users speculated the Trump campaign itself bought the URL, the website was set up anonymously, so there's no evidence as to who actually created the website. Had the campaign done so, such evidence might never come to light, as any expenditures involved in purchasing the domain could be easily concealed in future financial filings.

Over the weekend, the candidate bragged that he "called it" on the cause of the explosions, a reference to a speech Trump gave in which he referred to the Chelsea incident as a "bomb" before officials had released any information.

A Tumblr website claiming to be a manifesto from a gay man who committed the bombings to protest the oppression of LGBT individuals seems to have been a hoax propagated by parties unknown.