Today, Trump raised the stakes in his trade war with China, slapping tariffs of 145% on its exports to America. It didn’t just retaliate; China trolled him with AI-generated videos mocking his strategy.

The videos show “co-presidents” Trump and Musk, alongside an army of morbidly obese Americans, working at sweatshop stations, stitching Nike shoes and screwing together Apple iPhones. Traditional Chinese music drives the mockery home. But the message is clear: “Good luck replacing cheap, hardworking Chinese labor with expensive, lazy American whiners.”

But here’s a look at the reality behind Trump’s bluff and China’s fluff.

Tariffs vs Manufacturing: A yin and yang relationship

For the past fifty years, every US president has promised to bring back the glory days of American manufacturing. That affirms the wisdom of Trump’s aims. But there’s no accounting for the recklessness of his approach.

After all, Trump is the first to wield tariffs as a sword and shield, trying to force US companies like Apple to bring production back to America. But Apple, along with other industry leaders, is begging him to understand: this strategy is like demanding a fentanyl addict quit cold turkey. It’s reckless and doomed to fail.

Not to mention the delusion that has Trump acting as if America even has the workforce or infrastructure to support relocating on his command.

The unintended consequences

Again, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who disagrees with his goal. After all, Trump is just trying to wean the US off cheap imports and push for self-reliance — especially in critical sectors like steel, chips, meds, and phones.

But study after study shows tariffs backfire. They kill jobs and raise prices. Meanwhile, Trump’s Cabinet is spouting Marie-Antoinette nonsense about the US having “an army of millions and millions of people screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones.” But those viral Chinese videos make one thing clear: even Beijing knows this is imperial-grade BS.

Meanwhile, Trump is torching trade alliances that took decades to build. They were meant to counter the economic hegemon that everyone could see China was planning to be. But, instead of solidifying this united front, he’s taxing them. Instead of isolating China, he’s isolating the US.

Unsurprisingly, China is now reaching out to disaffected US allies, offering trade deals to box out America. If this keeps up, Trump’s tariffs will go down as the most epic case of a country shooting itself in the foot, like nobody has ever seen.