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Editor's note: Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
Trump claimed ridiculously on April 29 during an exclusive interview with Reuters that "China will do anything they can to have me lose this race," speculating that the People's Republic of China wants his Democrat rival Joe Biden to win due to the belief that he is less of a hardliner towards the country.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected these accusations, but the very fact that the American president of all people publicly spread such a conspiracy theory is extremely worrying ahead of the U.S.'s November election.
It was only earlier this year that the Senate decided not to impeach him for his alleged impropriety last summer during a phone call with the Ukrainian president, the scandal of which was regarded by many as a continuation of the Democrats' conspiracy theory that Trump "colluded" with Russia during his 2016 campaign.
Trump consistently denied any wrongdoing and presented himself as the victim of a political witch hunt, which in hindsight appeared to be the case after the government's investigation into those claims later vindicated him.
As such, it's a supreme reversal of roles that the same person who spent the last few years pleading with the American public to believe that it's impossible for any foreign country to meddle in his country's elections has embraced the spirit of the same conspiracy theory that has hounded him since before he even entered office. His Chinese meddling claims closely resemble the Democrats' discredited Russian ones, so much so that they're even driven by the same speculative reasoning that's designed to mislead voters ahead of November.
The Democrats told everyone that Hillary's hardline stance towards Russia made her the natural enemy of the Kremlin, just as Trump is telling now everyone that his hardline stance towards China makes him the natural enemy of the People's Republic.
It's objectively true that both Hillary and Trump are hardliners towards Russia and China respectively, but those countries' concerns towards their policies (both proposed in the former case and implemented in the latter) don't automatically equate into an intention to illegally meddle in elections.
Nevertheless, these accusations don't need to be factual in order to have their intended effect in shaping voters' perceptions.
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a rally in Philadelphia, U.S., May 18, 2019. /Xinhua
The Democrats wanted people to believe that Russia, which was portrayed by the media as the U.S.'s chief rival at the time, was backing Trump in order to install a puppet in the White House. Despite previously claiming that such a conspiracy was impossible, Trump is now saying that China, which is portrayed by the media as the U.S.'s chief rival at the moment, is backing Biden for the same reason.
He's not just saying this out of political desperation after some recent polls found that he is trailing behind Biden, but because he seems to sincerely believe that the public has been brainwashed over the past couple of years into thinking that such conspiracies are at least theoretically possible. This could mean that enough voters might be influenced by his self-interested twist to this weaponized narrative in order to guarantee him victory in November.
Put another way, Trump wants to exploit the political confusion that the Democrats themselves are responsible for.
Four years ago, then-President Obama didn't openly accuse the rival party's candidate of "colluding" with Russia even though it's now been determined that his administration was secretly plotting behind the scenes to spy on his campaign in a legally questionable manner in pursuit of evidence thereof.
Trump, however, has established the precedent of a sitting president accusing the rival party's candidate of being backed by a foreign power despite this discredited narrative having been weaponized against him before.
It therefore follows that he might do the same as his predecessor did in pitting the state machinery against the rival party's campaign, which would be extremely hypocritical after he spent the past couple of years describing such tactics as a witch hunt. Instead of campaigning on matters of policy, the Democrats and Republicans alike now apparently believe that the path to victory rests in convincing the majority of voters that their opponent is a foreign puppet, which speaks to just how far the concept of American democracy has fallen.
(Cover image: U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a rally in Orlando, Florida, the U.S., June 18, 2019. /Xinhua)
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