Elections

“Chinese Americans for Trump” Members Attend Trump’s Anaheim Rally

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Asian Americans are a largely forgotten slice of the electorate, rarely mentioned in the media and hardly ever courted by presidential candidates. They are the fastest growing immigrant group in the U.S., and have been for a while, yet continue to get overlooked by politicians at the national level. The largest group within the demographic are Chinese Americans–there are over four million in the U.S. as of 2011–and there is one candidate in this election cycle that is speaking to at least some of them: Donald Trump.

“Chinese Americans for Trump” is a group founded by Tian Wang in Anaheim, California. Wang, previously a Jeb Bush supporter, stumbled upon online videos of Trump, binge watched for five hours, and decided he found his man.

“I said, ‘This guy is really cool.’ He speaks from his — You know, he speaks from his mouth, really,” Wang told NBC News. “But most of the stuff he said is pretty straightforward and true.”

Wang, 32, isn’t the only one who feels this way. He said there are around 1,500 members of his collective. At least 50 “Chinese Americans for Trump” members attended his rally in Anaheim, which was held to drum up support for the California primary on June 7. Trump is the only candidate left on the Republican side, and he’s already locked up the nomination.

Wang’s group–who wear “Chinese Americans [heart icon] Trump” t-shirts at gatherings–does not seem to reflect a broader pattern among Asian Americans, or even most Chinese Americans.

One recent study found Asian Americans predominantly identify as Democrats (47 percent), though many more don’t identify with either party (37 percent). Of the 15 percent who identify as Republicans polled in the study, 61 percent had an unfavorable view of Trump, and 20 percent either had no opinion or hadn’t heard of him.

A separate study conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund after the New York Primary in April surveyed 513 Asian-Americans in New York City’s Chinatown. Only eight percent of those surveyed were registered Republicans, and of those, 60 percent voted for Trump.

Wang, however, cannot vote. He emigrated from China at 10, and while he is a permanent resident, he is not a citizen. But Rui Dai, 40, from Maryland and a fellow Trump backer, can and will. “I found that many of his suggestions are making sense,” she said. “It’s not nonsense. And I found he’s the only one who can state the tough situation of America.”

Alec Siegel
Alec Siegel
Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.
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