Featured Image Credit: Weibo
Topics: Donald Trump, JD Vance, Politics, China
Lucy Devine
Social media users have been mocking US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance by creating artificial intelligence-generated images.
Following Trump's tariff announcement earlier this month, and the ongoing trade war with China, AI images of the president and his administration have been circulating.
It all kicked off a few weeks ago when Trump announced a series of global tariffs in what he branded as 'Liberation Day'.
"We've been waiting for a long time, April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to 'Make America Wealthy Again'," he said.
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The trade war between the two countries has escalated in recent weeks, with China now facing up to 245 percent tariffs, while the country has hit back with its own tariff of 125 percent.
Amid all the tension between the two countries, there have been a number of AI-generated clips of the president released on social media.
According to the Daily Mail, one Chinese content creator created a satirical rendition of 'Song of MAGA'.
Meanwhile, another clip, which was shared on TikTok account, @axiang67, appears to show a group of AI-generated workers in factories undertaking manual labour work, with Chinese music playing in the background.
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"Make America great again～#tariff #america," the caption reads.
In the video, each worker appears to be exhausted and unhappy, sewing garments on machines and building smartphones.
The scene fades away and the slogan 'Make America Great Again' can be seen.
People were convinced that the AI clip was mocking the tariffs, by implying that manufacturing jobs could return to the US.
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Other clips appear to take aim at JD Vance, with several depicting the vice president as wearing make-up, with one calling him 'eyeliner man'.
One content creator stressed they were criticising the Trump administration, rather than the American people.
A separate clip depicted Trump, Vance and Elon Musk working on a production line making shoes.
Dressed in blue jumpsuits, the MAGA squad appear busy at work, attaching black laces to the black sneakers.
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The relevance of the AI-generated clip relates to the fact that a high percentage of the shoes sold in the US are imported from China.
"Small businesses like mine have to pay these tariffs, and it’s not a small thing," Devlin Carter, the founder of SIA collective - which manufactures shoes mostly in China - told NBC News.
"It’s a lot. So there’s no way to see this as something that’s good - for anybody. And it’s all unnecessary."
Pepper Harward, chief executive officer of Oka Brands, which has a factory in Georgia, also told Footwear News: "The footwear ecosystem doesn't really exist here.
"Everybody's interested in US manufacturing but very few people are fully committed to it or have solid justifications for making investments there."