Donald Trump Jr, who is leading his father’s re-run campaign for the White House, on Sunday introduced the India-China face-off into the US polls; saying the Democratic contender for the top office, Joe Biden, is “not good for India’’, after a poll recently showed the Indian-American community remaining steadfast to the Democrats despite Howdy Modi and Namaste Trump events.

Alleging that the Bidens have benefited from the Chinese, Trump Jr said Biden would be soft on China and therefore not good for India. According to a PTI report from Washington, he said this while speaking to a select group of supporters from the community at a gathering to celebrate his book on corruption allegations against the Bidens.

“When you look at our opponents in this race… you think the Chinese gave Hunter Biden $1.5 billion…because he was a great businessman, or because they knew the Bidens could be bought, and therefore soft on China. Therefore, (Joe Biden is) bad for India.’’

Hunter is Biden’s son.

Trump Jr also brought up the Namaste Trump welcome hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the US President in Ahmedabad in February. “When I saw the enthusiasm of my father with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi…you know, I used to think that Trump rallies were pretty big in America but that was the biggest Trump rally probably ever… in India,” Trump Jr said.

The younger Trump’s effort to bring the India-China face-off into the US campaign comes days after a survey conducted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that “Indian Americans continue to be strongly attached to the Democratic Party with little indication of a shift to the Republican Party’’.

The study was conducted in the backdrop of the narrative that the “apparent courtship’’ between Trump and Modi, “compounded by concerns over how a Biden administration might manage India-US ties, will push Indian Americans to abandon the Democratic Party in droves’’.

According to the Indian Americans Attitude Survey, 72 per cent of the community remain loyal to the Democrats; marking a 5 per cent drop from the 77 per cent that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Apart from the fact that Kamala Harris, an African-American of Indian origin, is Biden’s running mate, a key factor in the community’s preference for Democrats include the perception of Republicans being “unwelcoming’’.

Elaborating, the report states: “Indian Americans refrain from identifying with the Republican Party due, in part, to a perception that the party is intolerant of minorities and overly influenced by Christian evangelicalism. Those who identify as Republicans are primarily moved to do so because of economic policy differences with the Democrats...’’

Though India had projected both Howdy Modi and Namaste Trump as community events, the Trump campaign made it evident since last September — when the Houston rally was held — that both are related to his second campaign for the White House.

Not only did some members of the Trump campaign say so after the Howdy Modi rally in Houston, they also launched an official poll video featuring footage from the two events.