“They have fat fingers”. That is one of the most striking lines in one of the most striking documentaries of the year, American Factory, which has become the unofficial film of the Trump trade-war era.
It is the first film distributed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company for Netflix, and is set in Ohio, the state whose surprising capture in 2016 catapulted Donald Trump into the White House.
The allegedly fat fingers are those of the American workers at the Chinese-owned Fuyao automotive glass plant outside Dayton, Ohio. The plant was closed by General Motors in 2008, and brought back to life by Fujian-based Fuyao in 2015. Fuyao’s investment in Dayton has become a closely watched test case for Mr Trump’s proposition that America can be made great again by attracting foreign investment in manufacturing.