Amid the ongoing US-China trade war, with Trump raising the tariffs on Chinese imports by 125% for “its lack of respect for global markets” and China levying 84% on US goods in retaliation, AI-generated videos of Americans working in dingy factories have flooded social media. One of them also shows Trump and his “patriot” friend Musk working in a factory.

The videos poke fun at Trump’s “re-industrialisation” gambit to bring factories back to the US and at those who believe that the policies will “Make America Great Again”. They come after US Vice President JD Vance mocked factory workers in China as “peasants”. “We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture. That is not a recipe for economic prosperity. It’s not a recipe for low prices, and it’s not a recipe for good jobs in the United States of America,” Vance told Fox News. 

AI video shows overweight American workers 

One shows overweight American workers slowly working in factories, with some sewing garments and others assembling smartphones, probably iPhones. As it ends, the text “Make America Great Again” pops up with rusted billboards of Tesla, Nike and Apple. 

Trump, Musk working in a factory

Another video, that also ends with the words “Make America Great Again”, opens to show Trump slowly sewing a garment. It also shows Musk working on assembling a phone along with other workers. 

Reacting to the videos, one Reddit user expressed, “Chinese-made AI videos about American re-industrialisation are wild; the music makes it even better.”

Another said, “Depicting the type of clothing manufacturing jobs that have been outsourced overseas in the past decades, the 32-second clip paints a dystopian picture of what the US working world might look like as a result of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.”

“People [are] turning on President Trump and Elon Musk after they have sacrificed so much for you,” groused an individual. “They are already rich af and don’t need to do any of this!”

One Twitter (now X) user shared an AI-generated meme with the caption, “Make the sock”. The picture shows a worker, with a Patagonia vest and earphones on, weeping over a garment machine while making a sock as a frowning portrait of Trump looks on.

Another shows workers assembling phones, as one user rightly pointed out that a job is “better” than no job. 

Some even slammed China, with one saying, “I’m currently working in an American factory/sweatshop right now… 34 dollars an hour with double that for overtime.” “Do they not know what their country workers look like? There are either child labour or just slaves,” said another. 

A few even asked about how one considers it as a mockery: “How is this mockery? It’s a video of people working in reasonable conditions.” 

“This says more about China than the US. Don’t they realise that?” asked another. 

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently said that federal workers fired by Elon Musk’s DOGE could find jobs in manufacturing units.

“So, what we are doing: on one side, the president is reordering trade. On the other side, we are shedding excess labor in the federal government and bringing down federal borrowings. And then on the other side, that will give us the labour we need for the new manufacturing,” he told Tucker Carlson.

‘Xi Jinping is a very smart man’: Trump

“I think President Xi is a man who knows exactly what needs to be done. He’s a very smart man. He loves his country. I know that for a fact. I know him very well. And I think he’s going to want to make a deal. I think that’s going to happen. We’ll get a phone call at some point, and everything will be ready,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

He added, “It is going to be a great thing for us, the world and for humanity.”

Trump’s tariff on China: What has he said on Truth Social?

“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the USA and other countries are no longer sustainable or acceptable,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

He added, “Based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.”