April 02, 2024 12:59 PM UTC

Donald Trump "Endorsed" by Russia and China

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• by: Colorado Pols

As we have long known, former President Donald Trump is a YUGE fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Whether or not Putin shares a fondness for Trump is unclear, but the Russian dictator certainly prefers to deal with the obsequious orange guy when it comes to relations with the United States. Putin knows that Trump will give him free reign in foreign affairs, particularly when it comes to Ukraine; Trump literally said just six weeks ago that he would be inclined to let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that don’t meet Trump’s financial obligations to the alliance.

It is beyond question that Russia helped Trump make it into the White House in 2016. It now appears that China is doing the same in 2024. As The New York Times reports:

Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions and attacking President Biden ahead of the election in November, according to researchers and government officials.

The accounts signal a potential tactical shift in how Beijing aims to influence American politics, with more of a willingness to target specific candidates and parties, including Mr. Biden.

In an echo of Russia’s influence campaign before the 2016 election, China appears to be trying to harness partisan divisions to undermine the Biden administration’s policies, despite recent efforts by the two countries to lower the temperature in their relations.

Some of the Chinese accounts impersonate fervent Trump fans, including one on X that purported to be “a father, husband and son” who was “MAGA all the way!!” The accounts mocked Mr. Biden’s age and shared fake images of him in a prison jumpsuit, or claimed that Mr. Biden was a Satanist pedophile while promoting Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

“I’ve never seen anything along those lines at all before,” said Elise Thomas, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit research organization that uncovered a small group of the fake accounts posing as Trump supporters.

Ms. Thomas and other researchers have linked the new activity to a long-running network of accounts connected with the Chinese government known as Spamouflage. Several of the accounts they detailed previously posted pro-Beijing content in Mandarin — only to resurface in recent months under the guise of real Americans writing in English. [Pols emphasis]

As we’ve often said in this space: If you’re not sure on which side of the debate to stand, take a look at where everyone else is standing and make your decision from there.

You probably don’t want what Russia and China want.