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Souvenir t-shirts picturing the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump have already gone on sale.
The t-shirts use an image of a defiant Trump raising his fist in the air while blood dripped down his cheek from his ear, as Secret Service agents tried to rush him off the stage.
The attack unfolded at around 6.15pm local time on Saturday, just 15 minutes after the former president took to the stage for a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Gunfire rang out in the air and Trump was seen clutching his ear before ducking behind the podium.
One rallygoer was killed and two others left critically injured, before the suspect, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by Secret Service agents.
Photos of Trump pumping his fist in the air as he was rushed off for medical treatment quickly spread across the globe.
And mere hours later, t-shirts with variations of the historic image went on sale from outlets based in the US and China.
By around 8pm local time on Saturday, some Chinese manufacturers had already put the iconic photo onto t-shirts, according to the South China Morning Post.
The first batch reportedly went on sale on Taobao, a Chinese e-commerce platform, at 8.40pm. One of the Taobao sellers, Li Jinwei, told the Hong-Kong based newspaper: “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.”
Li told reporters that for this year’s US presidential election they had only made souvenirs of Trump because he was more popular.
Follow The Independent’s live reporting following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump
Potoshirt, an online store for trending t-shirts which is based in the US, was also advertising defiant Trump assassination T-shirts on social media as of early Sunday morning.
One product, which was on sale for $22.95, had a shot of a bloodied Trump raising his fist in defiance with the words “you can’t kill Trump” above the image.
Another t-shirt, on sale for the same price, used the full image of the former president surrounded by security personnel, with the line “if you come at the king you best not miss” underneath the photo.
TeePublic, an online marketplace that allows creators to see their products, was also showing commemorative clothing for sale on Sunday morning.
The site was selling the signature image of Trump thrusting his hand into the air after the attack on tank tops, hoodies, crewneck sweatshirts, and baseball shirts.
One seller on online shop Etsy, based in Colorado, had the same image on a white t-shirt, listed for £18.28 as “Donald Trump Assassination Attempt Shirt”. Another similar product was listed as “Trump Bloody Ear.”
