U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a tariff war against the world, promising to revive American manufacturing, but online memes poking fun at Trump for attempting the impractical have been circulating.
Chinese netizens, who are locked in a trade war exchanging large-scale retaliatory tariffs with the U.S., are criticizing Trump, saying that his vision of a 'great America' ironically resembles a backward China.
According to a report from NBC News on 10th (local time), memes including images and four-panel cartoons that satirize the irony of Trump's 'manufacturing transition' as the reason for the tariff war have gained popularity on Chinese social media platforms like TikTok and Weibo.
A Chinese TikTok user created a video using artificial intelligence (AI) depicting Americans sitting in an old factory, reminiscent of those in China long ago, sewing clothes and assembling phones.
The video, which features traditional Chinese music, concluded with the phrase 'Make America Great Again,' Trump's campaign slogan, mocking his policies.
This video has garnered millions of views on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) and has become a hot topic among Americans.
On that day, Trump's tariffs became a trending search term on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, and the phrase, 'While engaging in a trade war, America is begging for eggs,' which critiques the recent surge in egg prices in the U.S., also trended on popular hashtags.
However, the Trump administration argues against such concerns, claiming that the new manufacturing jobs being created in the U.S. will involve advanced technology.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick recently said in a CBS News interview, 'Highly educated Americans will return to work in these advanced technology factories coming back to America, experiencing a renaissance of the greatest jobs in history.'
This is not the first time Trump's tariff policies have become a subject of mockery online. Last week, it was revealed that the list of countries subjected to reciprocal tariffs included the Heard and McDonald Islands near Antarctica, where only penguins live, leading to a flurry of mocking images of surprised penguins protesting against what they called outrageous tariffs.