Chinese e-commerce sites are selling T-shirts and tote bags featuring former President Donald Trump’s bloody face after he survived an apparent assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Speculation flared on Chinese social media channels after Chinese state media reported the incident early the next day, shortly after the Chinese foreign ministry announced that President Xi Jinping had been “injured by gunfire at a campaign event in Butler” and “expressed sympathy to former President Trump.”
Writing on Trump’s own social media brand, Truth Social, the former president said “a bullet went through the top of my right ear” during the attack, which authorities said left one attendee dead and two wounded. The shooter is “dead,” Trump wrote.
President Joe Biden late Saturday called the shooting “horrible.” “We can’t tolerate this. We can’t tolerate this,” the Democratic president told reporters.
Evan Vucci/AP
The shooting, now under investigation by the FBI, appears only to have added more unpredictability to what was already expected to be a closely contested race heading into the November 2024 presidential election.
Trump’s one-term presidency began with success then flopped in China, where his protectionist policies quickly angered Communist leaders in Beijing, but the flamboyant Republican continues to charm Chinese people, especially in online forums.
On Taobao and other e-commerce sites, T-shirt makers have begun selling clothes printed with a photo of Trump with his fist raised, taken just after gunshots rang out at the Butler Farm Show rally and Secret Service agents attempted to escort him off the stage.
The $8 T-shirt was just one of hundreds of Trump-related items that have been sold in China for years, including one last year that included a picture of Mr. Trump.
A US T-shirt manufacturer also appears to have used a photo taken by Evan Vucci of the Associated Press.
Brendan Smiarowski/AFP via Getty Images
On China’s largest social media site, Weibo, the report from state broadcaster CCTV was the top trending topic for more than 90 minutes, garnering more than 230 million views at the time of writing.
The vast majority of comments on the post believe that Trump has already won the election, and internet users have also commented on Trump’s reaction on stage.
“Trump’s response was pretty swift,” one user wrote.
“Trump will definitely be elected,” said another.
In a background briefing to reporters earlier this week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said U.S. intelligence agencies assess that “China does not currently intend to influence the outcome of the presidential election because China sees little interest in choosing between the two major parties, both of which appear to be seeking to contain Beijing.”
“The question of which candidate China prefers was settled long ago, with Chinese experts openly declaring both candidates ‘poison’ for China, regardless of who wins,” Yun Sun, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Stimson Center, a Washington, D.C. think tank, wrote in May.
“In their view, Biden may bring more stability to bilateral relations, but his competitive strategy is very effective both economically and diplomatically, leaving China’s high-tech industry and diplomatic offensive in limbo,” Sun said.
“By comparison, Trump’s positions on alliances and partnerships with the US, and the damage he could cause, serve Beijing’s strategic agenda in the long term. But in the short term, Trump’s unpredictability and use of maximum pressure will put China in an extremely difficult position, making him a less desirable option from China’s perspective.”
The Trump campaign and China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
