The Global South-led organization BRICS has been growing in size and influence, and this has frightened some Western politicians.
Donald Trump is particularly rattled. After he returned to the White House for his second term as US president, Trump threatened very high tariffs on BRICS, and falsely said he had destroyed the organization.
“BRICS is dead”, Trump claimed in a press conference on 13 February. The US president stated:
BRICS was put there for a bad purpose, and most of those people don’t want — they don’t even want to talk about it now; they’re afraid to talk about it.
Because I told them, if they want to play games with the dollar, then they’re going to be hit with a 100% tariff, the day they mention that they want to do it. And they will come back and say, “We beg you, we beg you not to do this”.
BRICS is dead, since I mentioned that. BRICS died the minute I mentioned that.
And I know, I remember when Obama and Biden in particular, I guess he said that, “Oh, they have us over a barrel”. They don’t have us over a barrel; we have them over a barrel.
If BRICS wants to play games, those countries won’t trade with us; we won’t trade with them. And if any trading gets through, it’ll be a 100% tariff, at least.
Trump’s claim that “BRICS is dead” could not be further from the truth. The exact opposite is happening: BRICS is continuously expanding. ….more