Trump and Elon Musk mocked in new AI video showing them as factory workers
By KUMAIL JAFFER
AI-Generated videos mocking Donald Trump and his top team have continued to go viral amid a deepening trade war between the US and China.
New footage shows Trump, senior adviser Elon Musk and JD Vance, working on a production line making trainers in a thinly veiled slight at the White House's hopes to bring back manufacturing to the US.
Chinese accounts have been promoting the video and photos ridiculing the so-called 'US Manufacturing Revival Plan' in light of the Chinese Communist Party vowing they would 'fight to the end' in a tariff war.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, shared an AI-generated meme of a MAGA hat labelled 'made in China', with the price raised from $50 to $77 to poke at the self-inflicted pains of the tariffs.
Mao, reported to be a relative of the former chairman, also harked back to the early republic with a 1953 video of revolutionary saying during the Korean War: 'We will never yield. We'll fight until we completely triumph.'
'We are Chinese. We are not afraid of provocations. We don't back down,' she added in a note shared by the Chinese Embassy in the U.S.
Despite a 90-day pause in implementing increased tariffs on other nations, Trump has continued to focus his fire on Beijing, further hiking the rate on Chinese imports to 125 per cent.
Should the economic stand-off continue, the Nike shoes featured in the viral video may skyrocket in price, according to experts.
At the moment, 62 per cent of the shoes sold in the United States are imported from China, with other nations like Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and India providing the rest.
Just one per cent of shoes are produced domestically, with figures from the sneaker industry - worth $70billion annually - left frustrated.
Devlin Carter, the founder of luxury firm SIA collective - which manufactures shoes mostly in China - told NBC News: 'These are ridiculous tariffs that make no sense.'
The footage shows Trump, senior adviser Elon Musk and JD Vance working on a production line
At the moment, 62 per cent of the shoes sold in the United States are imported from China
A viral TikTok meme using AI-generated 'Americans' mocked the US government's desire to bring manufacturing jobs back to American soil
'Small businesses like mine have to pay these tariffs, and it’s not a small thing. It’s a lot. So there’s no way to see this as something that’s good — for anybody.
'And it’s all unnecessary.'
Business costs for the majority of firms producing shoes will rise, whether it is from covering increased tariff costs or trying to shift production back to the US.
Economist Peter Schiff said last week: 'Nike won't build factories in the US to make sneakers. That would add more cost than the 40 per cent tariffs.
'Plus, they need to stay competitive selling to customers in other countries that don't impose tariffs. The result will be fewer sneakers sold in the US at much higher prices.'
Pepper Harward, chief executive officer of Oka Brands, which has a factory in the state of Georgia, told Footwear News: 'The footwear ecosystem doesn't really exist here.
'Everybody's interested in U.S. manufacturing but very few people are fully committed to it or have solid justifications for making investments there.
Chris Rogers, head of supply chain research at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said it could take a 'couple of years' at the minimum to move supply chains back to the US from abroad.
Beijing Business Daily shared an AI-generated meme of a penguin wearing a red 'Make America Go Away' baseball caps
Mao Ning shared an AI-generated image depicting MAGA hats priced up amid the trade war
Economist Peter Schiff said last week: 'Nike won't build factories in the US to make sneakers. That would add more cost than the 40 per cent tariffs'
China is a key trading partner with a large manufacturing industry, producing inexpensive goods for American consumers
Trump's tariffs come at a difficult time for China's sluggish economy, with firms now scrambling to adjust their supply chains
Other AI-generated videos related to the trade war have also been seen millions of times in both China and Western countries.
One popular one portrayed a glum picture of life in a re-industrialised America, with obese factory workers stitching cheap clothes.
The 32-second clip focuses on the stereotypical manufacturing jobs that have moved overseas in the last few decades.
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China unleashes meme war on Trump's tariffs with AI-generated videos mocking Americans
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The Americans look sluggish and tired by the work as they sew clothes with old-fashioned machines.
Meanwhile, Beijing Business Daily shared an AI-generated meme of a penguin wearing a red 'Make America Go Away' baseball caps in a news segment shared to Weibo.
A video included alongside the story included a penguin with a speech bubble saying, in Mandarin: 'We have to pay taxes too?'
'Behind the memes lies a deeper absurdity.'
Chinese state media outlet CGTN took a different approach, publishing a 2-minute 42-second music video titled, 'Look What You Taxed Us Through (An AI-Generated Song. A Life-Choking Reality)'.
The AI-generated song reeled off: '"Liberation Day," you promised us the stars. But tariffs killed our cheap Chinese cars.'
Lyrics transcribed in English and Chinese appeared to bash the tariffs from the perspective of the American consumer.
The outlet added: 'For many Americans, "Liberation Day" hailed by Trump administration will mean shrinking paychecks and rising costs.
'Tariffs hit, wallets quit: low-income families take the hardest blow. As the market holds its breath, the toll is already undeniable.
'Numbers don’t lie. Neither does the cost of this so-called "fairness".'
'Warning: Track is AI-generated. The debt crisis? 100 percent human-made.'
AI generated video shared on TikTok portrayed Americans making phones in factories
Chinese social media has continued to mock Americans as moody children who will be unwilling to take on labor-intensive work as the US-Chinese trade war carries on
Chinese state media outlet CGTN published a 2-minute 42-second music video titled, 'Look What You Taxed Us Through'
Lyrics transcribed in English and Chinese appeared to bash the tariffs from the perspective of the American consumer
China is a key trading partner with a large manufacturing industry, producing inexpensive goods for American consumers.
Trump's tariffs come at a difficult time for China's sluggish economy, with firms now scrambling to adjust their supply chains and officials concerned that any profits made selling goods to the US will be completely wiped out.
They have remained bullish in public, however, with China's foreign ministry saying they do not 'fear' further tariff threats.
'The US cause doesn't win the support of the people and will end in failure,' a ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said at a press conference.
China's commerce ministry also reiterated its vow to 'fight to the end' if Trump continues to insist upon harsh tariffs on foreign imports.
He Yongqian, spokesperson for the ministry, told reporters today that pressure, threats and blackmail were not the right approach to dealing with China.
She lamented the 'imposition of indiscriminate tariffs' on trading partners including China which, she echoed, 'seriously infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and severely impact the stability of the global economic order.'
'The door to dialogue is open, but it must be based on mutual respect and conducted in an equal manner.'
The ministry added: 'We hope the US will meet China halfway, and, based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, properly resolve differences through dialogue and consultation.'
But Trump is seemingly insistent on refusing to budge over his tariff strategy with Beijing.
'At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the USA and other countries is no longer sustainable or acceptable,' he said.
China 'wants to make a deal, they just don’t know how quite to go about it,' he added.
'They’re proud people. President Xi [Jinping] is a proud man. I know him very well. They don’t know quite how to go about it but they’ll figure it out.'
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks in Macau, December 19, 2024
A recent Chinese report parodied the American tariffs on uninhabited islands near Antarctica. A video included alongside the story included a penguin with a speech bubble saying, in Mandarin: 'We have to pay taxes too?'
Global stocks outside of China stabilised on Thursday after Donald Trump paused the majority of his tariffs for 90 days.
Japan's Nikkei index closed 9.1 per cent higher, as Taiwan stocks closed up a record 9.3 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 2.69 per cent.
Vietnam stocks soared more than 6.5 percent on Thursday, while Indonesia's benchmark index rallied nearly five per cent higher at the open.
Thailand's stock exchange index rose around 4.5 per cent after Trump pushed back the imposition of a 36 per cent tariff on exports from the country.
Europe, too, looked better off. Frankfurt jumped more than seven per cent almost a half hour into trading, Paris gained 7.3 per cent and London surged 5.3 per cent.
European markets had fallen around three percent on Wednesday after Trump's punishing tariffs came into force.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday welcomed Trump's decision to pause planned tariff increases as an 'important step towards stabilising the global economy'.
'Clear, predictable conditions are essential for trade and supply chains to function,' von der Leyen said in a statement. 'The European Union remains committed to constructive negotiations with the United States,' she said.
She later announced that the bloc would put its countermeasure tariffs on hold for 90 days, pending negotiations.
'While there has been understandable relief... the genie is still out of the bottle on policy unpredictability,' said a Deutsche Bank analysis.
'A 10 percent minimum universal tariff represents the largest tariff increase in decades and heightened trade uncertainty is likely to linger, with limited visibility on what kind of deals the US would find acceptable,' it said.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said the 'red line' for Trump was a selloff of US government bonds.
'The fire sale in US Treasuries dialled up the pressure to a point that apparently became unbearable - even for Trump,' she said.
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