Trump attack T-shirts go on sale in China moments after US rally shooting incident

Shortly after Donald Trump was targeted in a shooting incident during a rally in Pennsylvania, Chinese online retailers wasted no time in offering souvenir T-shirts adorned with photos depicting the aftermath of the assassination attempt on the former president.

According to a report from TOI, Taobao seller Li Jinwei said, “We put the T-shirts on Taobao as soon as we saw the news about the shooting, though we hadn’t even printed them, and within three hours we saw more than 2,000 orders from both China and the US.”

The rapid production and sale were made possible by digital printing technology, which allowed the T-shirts to be quickly printed and made available for purchase. Companies like Xinflying Digital Printing Production in Guangdong reported their capability of printing 8 election-themed T-shirts per hour using digital printing machines.

Data from DHgate, a Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform, indicated a significant increase in the transaction volume of election-related souvenirs, growing by over 40% month-over-month since January, with a remarkable 110% surge in March alone.

The speed at which these T-shirts featuring images related to the Trump shooting were produced highlights the efficiency of digital printing. Factories downloaded relevant images and utilised their digital printing capabilities to swiftly manufacture the merchandise. Li’s factory in Hebei province, for instance, could complete a T-shirt in approximately one minute.

Inputs from TOI