The US president has told the economic bloc to “find another sucker”
The BRICS nations will face 100% tariffs on their goods if they dare to challenge the dominance of the “mighty US dollar,” President Donald Trump warned on Thursday in yet another threat to use American economic power to achieve geopolitical goals.
Members of the BRICS economic bloc have accelerated efforts to reduce reliance on third-party currencies in bilateral trade in recent years, especially after Western sanctions on Russia blocked its US-dollar and euro-denominated reserves following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
“The idea that the BRICS countries are trying to move away from the dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, echoing past threats.
“They can go find another sucker nation,” he fumed. “We are going to require a commitment from these seemingly hostile countries that they will neither create a new BRICS currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar.”
“There is no chance that BRICS will replace the US dollar in international trade or anywhere else, and any country that tries should say hello to tariffs and goodbye to America!” Trump added.
Following a similar threat in November, the Kremlin stressed that American pressure would only accelerate a growing global trend toward using national currencies in trade, diminishing the greenback’s role as a reserve currency. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated during the BRICS summit in Kazan in October that while it was too early to discuss a common BRICS currency and “reject” the dollar, Moscow has had to find alternative financial systems to circumvent Western control over global financial infrastructure.
Beijing responded to Trump’s threat by promising to continue expanding cooperation among fellow members of the economic bloc. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian called BRICS an important platform for cooperation among emerging markets, emphasizing its aim to achieve comprehensive development and prosperity, not to engage in “bloc confrontation” or “target any third party.”
India stated that while the group regularly discusses bilateral financial transactions, it has “no interest” in weakening the dollar. “India has never been for de-dollarization,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in December.
South Africa similarly denied that the bloc was planning to create a new currency.
However, in 2023, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed support for creating “a trading currency” within the bloc, “just like the Europeans created the euro.”
The BRICS group comprises founding members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, along with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Indonesia was accepted as a full member earlier this month.
Trump mistakenly included Spain as a member of BRICS during a White House press briefing shortly after his inauguration. “They’re a BRICS nation, Spain. You know what a BRICS nation is? You’ll figure it out,” he said, adding he would impose “at least 100% tariff on the business they do with the United States.”
