China’s state-run Global Times on Friday said President Donald Trump’s party is “abandoning” him as election counts swing toward challenger Joe Biden, while Trump’s supporters grow more “irrational” in their protests against voting irregularities.
The Global Times quoted Renmin University of China associate dean Jin Canrong taking Vice President Mike Pence’s absence from Trump’s latest press conference as evidence “the Republicans are keeping a distance from Trump, and may even be abandoning him.”
“Without support from the Republicans, Trump’s legal challenges in multiple battleground states are unlikely to receive enough political, logistical and financial resources,” Jin predicted.
Other Chinese commentators said Trump’s supporters in battleground states “seem to have become more irrational – making online threats, ramping up demonstrations, spreading unverified information of election ‘fraud and corruption,’ or staging protests at vote counting venues.”
The Chinese Communist paper noted Big Tech censorship of Trump-supporting groups, and not exactly in a disapproving manner:
Shen Yi, an expert on US politics and international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Thursday that both sides are trying to use social media networks to organize to impact the vote counting process, but nationwide chaos is unlikely.
“Some radical Trump supporters are playing old tricks such as spreading disinformation and launching sectarian and anti-intellectualism propaganda. But it seems social media platforms and US mainstream media are containing their voices,” Shen said.
US media reported that many Trump supporters have become the hub of disinformation and hatred, sowing conspiracy theories and falsely claiming that the ballot count was being rigged, and called for demonstrations.
The Global Times’ analysts relished the “significant and unprecedented chance for Chinese people and scholars to research on and observe the problems of modern U.S. democracy.” It also relished the possibility that China’s determined adversary for the past four years might cause himself some trouble by refusing to accept the election results:
Some observers said Trump’s grassroots radical supporters are still cooperating with Trump to pressure the vote counting process and the media, so Trump might want to use them to create more civil unrest and riots, and to force the Democrats not to hunt him down on alleged tax fraud and other issues after he leaves the White House.
“This would be very dangerous for Trump and his family, because if Trump uses his supporters to bring further damage to US society, he should be held accountable, and the Democrats and the Biden administration won’t let him just go away easily,” Jin noted.
Jin concluded such a tumultuous finale for the 2020 election was unlikely because the incoming administration could “anger Trump supporters and cause nationwide unrest” by arresting Trump.