As inflation continues to be a complaint amongst Americans given how high it was for much of the Biden presidency, President-elect Donald Trump has announced how he will pushback against attempts from BRICS to create a new currency that competes with the United States dollar on the world stage.
Describing how he would fight back against the attempts from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, along with others in the orbit of BRICS, to fight back against dollar dominance by potentially creating a new currency to use for international transactions, Trump threatened the use of tariffs.
Particularly, he threatened to implement 100% tariffs on goods from any country that creates such a currency, something that would lead to massive pain for economies like those in China that rely largely on creating and exporting goods for the American market, as it would cut them off not only from America, but also, likely, the NATO countries.
Announcing the move, the President-elect said that America is no longer going to sit by and allow other countries to trade with it at the same time as they compete and take advantage of it, all while America does nothing, saying, “The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER.”
Continuing, he said that countries that wish to trade with America without facing an especially steep tariff must commit not to creating a replacement currency. He said, “We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy.”
Concluding, he again noted that America is being treated as a sucker and no longer will do so under his next administration, and that those countries that want to compete should expect to be cut out entirely. He said, “They can go find another “sucker!” There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America.”
The BRICS nations are considering an alternative currency because of how the American dollar has been, in their eyes, weaponized via tariffs and other forms of economic blackmail. Speaking at a BRICS summit in October, for example, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of “weaponizing” the dollar, saying that doing so was a “big mistake.”
Continuing, President Putin said that the Russians are happy to use the currency, but that if they’re not allowed to because of American foreign policy decisions, then they’ll have to seek out an alternative means of conducting trade. He said, on that point, “It’s not us who refuse to use the dollar. But if they don’t let us work, what can we do? We are forced to search for alternatives.” Trump responded at the time with the same vow of 100% tariffs.
Watch Trump speak about this idea in October here:
"*" indicates required fields