Viral AI video mocks idea of Americans working in factories as Trump promises to restore US manufacturing through tariffs
ByShane Galvin
Published April 9, 2025, 12:33 a.m. ET
244 Comments
The art of trade war.
An AI-generated video mocking the prospect of Americans working factory jobs has been viewed over six million times in the wake of President Trump’s tariff agenda.
The video — aimed at undermining the Trump administration’s promise to create US manufacturing jobs using tariffs — depicts depressed-looking, larger-bodied “Americans” working in sweatshop-like environments set to a twangy score of traditional Chinese music.
3One of the obese “Americans” drawn up by artificial intelligence.TikTok
The US workers are depicted as obese, middle-aged, and dull-witted as they sit, twiddling at sewing machines, in the video shared by TikTok user Ben Lau, who captioned the AI clip “Make America great again #tariff #america.”
Other “Americans” in the video wear matching gray uniforms, a la Foxconn, as they solder iPhones on an assembly line in a mock-up version of actual Chinese factories.
The TikTok video was reposted to X by user Damon Chen, who punctuated the insulting video with a laughing-crying emoji.
His tweet was seen more than six million times, but several people in the comments took issue with the apparent insult to the tariff plan — and the sideswipe at the dignity of factory laborers.
“When manufacturing was here America was great. Why do liberals think this is demoralizing or something?,” one user replied.
“What exactly is your point? My mom worked in a sewing factory for 15 years, she raised us after dad left, stayed off welfare & kept food on the table & a roof over our heads. It was a good job, thankful she had it,” an animated X-poster recounted.
3This “American” solders an iPhone on an assembly line, much like workers in China at Foxconn factories.TikTok
“My dad worked in an electronics factory assembling circuit boards when I was a kid on Long Island. It went away in the 1990s. The people seemed jovial and happy,” one user stated.
“Except if the factories are ever built here they will be staffed by robots not people,” an X poster observed.
“Very misleading propaganda post,” an apparent Canadian responded.
Many others took the video to be a direct insult from Chinese nationals directed at Americans — causing an outpouring of criticism about the Eastern power’s alleged use of child laborers.
3Americans are depicted as sewing on a seemingly endless factory floor designed by AI.TikTok
The online jibe-fest comes as the two superpowers face off in a “tariff war” — with the Trump administration imposing a 104% tariff on Chinese goods following the Communist nation’s own retaliatory tariffs.
244
What do you think? Post a comment.
“It was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday.
“We are the ‘deficit country.’ So what do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us? We export one–fifth to them of what they export to us. So, that is a losing hand for them,” Bessent added.