The first appeared online within hours of the attempted assassination, with Taobao, a Chinese e-commerce outlet, seemingly first out of the blocks.

Images of a fist-waving Trump were published by the Associated Press at 6.31 pm. By 8.40pm the first T-shirts were listed as available to buy.

“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,” seller Li Jinwei told the South China Morning Post.

“Sales exceeded my expectations. I didn’t expect that Trump would have so many fans,” said Zhong Jiachi, 28, owner of Paxinico, another online clothing merchant.

Rapid production

Thanks to digital printing, it has been possible for Chinese manufacturers to produce thousands of T-shirts, with one company having opened an automated factory in California to more quickly supply the US market.

Dozens of sellers advertised on Amazon with prices ranging from $10.99 (£8.46) to $19.99, with the online retailer offering next-day delivery in the US.

Etsy’s range included T-shirts with slogans such as, “Fight” and “Stand with Trump”.

It also offered a black T-shirt featuring Mr Trump making a middle-finger gesture, alongside the phrase, “You missed.”

One American retailer, Hodgetwins, said it was not looking to profit from the incident as it promised to donate all profits from its Trump merchandise to his campaign.