Critics from China are poking fun at Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff strategy by creating and sharing AI-generated memes targeting both the president and his deputy.
Individuals from various political leanings are engaging in the ridicule, using monikers like ‘Chairman Trump’ and ‘the eyeliner man’ amidst the escalating trade tensions between the United States and China.
Across different social media platforms, users worldwide are leveraging AI technology to satirize the Trump Administration. While the content is not strictly originating from China, it is finding significant traction on Chinese social media channels.
One Chinese content creator, who once parodied Xi Jinping in his stand against the ‘shamelessness of the totalitarian ruling class and dictators’, racked up hundreds of thousands of views with a satirical ‘Song of MAGA’ on YouTube.
The song featured AI-generated depictions of Trump, Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and Elon Musk marching through the streets under red socialist banners, carrying Chairman Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’ in a parody of the administration and its following.
‘Led by Chairman Trump, we shout “MAGA”,’ the lyrics read, before cutting a sobering portrayal of the officials working in blue overalls in a factory – reflecting Trump’s plans to encourage domestic manufacturing in the US through use of strict tariffs.
The video built on meme videos already in circulation across Chinese social media accounts, painting a bleak future for Americans, looking unhealthy and unhappy as they pivot to low wage industrial roles.
Other videos, mirroring content shared on American social media, targeted JD Vance by depicting the vice president in drag and branding him ‘the eyeliner man’.
One nationalistic Chinese TikToker portrayed Vance in costume and makeup, demanding an apology for his comments about ‘Chinese peasants’.
Netizens across the political spectrum have found common ground in their criticism of Donald Trump’s shock and awe approach to negotiating favourable trade deals.
‘Absurd Words in the Walled Country’, an open critic of ‘the CCP’s authoritarian rule’, accompanied his ‘The Song of MAGA’ video with a serious plea for the United States not to ‘become another China’.
‘We do not want to see America ruled by a dictator,’ they wrote. ‘We do not want to see America fall into the hands of a few oligarchs.’
‘Since Trump took office, there have been erratic policies, reckless changes, chaotic governance, trade wars with the world, plunging stock markets, rising prices, and serious damage to the economy.
‘The interests of ordinary Americans have been severely harmed. He has alienated allies and supported Russian aggression. All of this pains us deeply…’
The parodic song was set to the tune of ‘We Walk on the Great Road’, a Chinese patriotic song of the Mao era alluding to the Great Leap Forward – Mao’s push to industrialise China, resulting in mass famine and the deaths of an estimated 30 million people.
‘Forward we go, forward we go,’ the satire reads, showing Americans working on a production line. ‘The power of MAGA will overflow.’
The video was in tune with American memes circulating widely on Twitter/X, Instagram and Reddit.
JD Vance was later depicted in the video in his inflated AI-generated form, with a scruffy beard and mane of curly hair, selling vegetables loose on the pavement.
Others meanwhile packaged copies of Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’, drawing a thinly veiled comparison to Mao’s widely-distributed book of quotations.
Writing first in English, and then in traditional Chinese, the author of the video was keen to stress their criticism was against the administration and not the wider American people.
‘We love the free and democratic United States,’ they said, adding: ‘We oppose the CCP’s authoritarian rule. We oppose the CCP’s exploitation and oppression of the Chinese people!’
Chinese accounts have also joined in with the American trend of reimagining JD Vance with AI in makeup or as Chairman Mao.
One video showing ‘Chili Sauce made in China’ featured Vance’s likeness in winged eyeliner read: ‘Peasant brand chili oil made in China, tastes great.’
Vance’s quote – ‘We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture’ – has drawn fury in China.
The same TikToker jibed: ‘I was so angry when you said that to me that I ate three eggs in one go,’ referring to the soaring price in the United States.
AI-generated videos mocking Trump and his top team have been going viral for weeks as the trade war between the US and China deepened.
Earlier this month, Trump, Elon Musk and Vance were depicted working on a production line making trainers.
Chinese accounts, including those affiliated with Beijing officials, promoted the video and photos ridiculing the so-called ‘US Manufacturing Revival Plan’.
Mao Ning, spokesperson for the foreign ministry, at the time 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 to be felt by US consumers.
Chinese state media outlet CGTN earlier this month published 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.’
