Chinese AI Videos Show Donald Trump, Elon Musk Making Sneakers As Tariff Memes Go Viral

Last Updated:April 12, 2025, 23:38 IST

Chinese social media users have flooded China’s social media outlets with AI-generated videos which make fun of Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports.

This still from an AI-generated video by Chinese social media users shows three men possibly depicting Donald Trump, Elon Musk and JD Vance making shoes inside a factory. (IMAGE: X)

Chinese social media users are at it again. In a bid to poke fun at the US, Chinese social media users have been posting memes and AI-generated videos making fun of Americans following US President Donald Trump’s imposition of high tariffs on Chinese imports.

A new video, re-shared by Hong Kong-based PhoenixTV, depicts Trump and Elon Musk working on a Nike sneaker production line. Another features Vice President JD Vance assembling an iPhone, wearing denim and a red cap which did not have MAGA written on it in an apparent jibe.

The videos have also been amplified by Chinese state media and officials and take aim at Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rhetoric by portraying a not-so-distant future where Americans will be forced to return to the shop floor amid skyrocketing production costs.

Earlier this week, Chinese government officials and social media users leaned on AI-generated satire to mock the fallout. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning posted a meme earlier this week on X claiming Trump’s own “Make America Great Again” hats now cost over 50% more thanks to his tariff push.

Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu also reposted a meme first posted on the social media app Rednote showing MAGA hat prices more than doubling under Trump’s tariffs.

Some show overweight Americans working in factories, supposedly making Tesla products, in a jibe to Trump’s push for revived domestic manufacturing.

The Trump administration has exempted a raft of consumer electronics from its punishing import tariffs — offering relief to US tech firms and partially dialling down a trade war with China.

A notice late Friday by the US Customs and Border Protection office said smartphones, laptops, memory chips and other products would be excluded from the global levies President Donald Trump rolled out a week ago.

The move came as retaliatory Chinese import tariffs of 125 percent on US goods took effect Saturday, with Beijing standing defiant against its primary trade competitor.

The exemptions will benefit US tech companies like Nvidia and Dell, as well as Apple which makes iPhones and other premium products in China.

And they will generally narrow the impact of the staggering 145 percent tariffs Trump has imposed this year on Chinese goods entering the United States.

US Customs data suggests the exempted items account for more than 20 percent of those Chinese imports, according to senior RAND researcher Gerard DiPippo.

Washington and Beijing’s escalating tariff battle has raised fears of an enduring trade war between the world’s two largest economies and sent global markets into a tailspin.

(with inputs from AFP)

Location :

Beijing, China