'Brics broke up': Trump claims bloc went silent after 150% tariff threat

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned BRICS nations against attempts to challenge the dominance of the US dollar with an alternative global reserve currency

US President Donald Trump on Friday said that the Brics, which includes India, ‘broke up’ following his threat to impose 150 per cent tariffs in response to efforts undermining the US dollar.  

 

Trump has repeatedly cautioned Brics nations against attempts to replace the US dollar as the global reserve currency, warning of significant trade penalties if they pursued an alternative.  

 

“I don’t know what the hell happened to them. We haven’t heard from the Brics states lately,” Trump remarked. “Brics states were trying to destroy our dollar. They wanted to create a new currency. So when I came in, the first thing I said was any Brics state that even mentions the destruction of the dollar will be charged a 150 per cent tariff, and we don’t want your goods and the Brics states just broke up,” he said.  

 

Brics is an intergovernmental organisation consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the UAE.  

 

Reiterating his stance, Trump claimed he has not heard about Brics since issuing the tariff warning. “I don’t know what the hell happened to them. We haven’t heard from the Brics states lately,” he said.  

 

Trump’s ongoing warnings to Brics nations  

On February 13, Trump issued another warning, stating that Brics countries could face 100 per cent tariffs from the US if they “want to play games with the dollar”. Declaring that Brics was effectively ‘dead’, he reiterated that the US would cease trade with member nations should they attempt to replace the dollar with another currency.  

 

Posting on X via his platform Truth Social, Trump made it clear he opposed any shift away from the US dollar. “The idea that the Brics countries are trying to move away from the dollar, while we stand by and watch, is OVER,” he wrote.  

 

Expressing strong resistance to the creation of a Brics currency, Trump stated, “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, or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy.”  

 

Trump’s threat over BRICS currency move

 

“They can go find another sucker nation. 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!” he said.  

 

Trump’s warning follows similar remarks earlier this month, in which he cautioned BRICS against contributing to the ‘de-dollarisation’ of the global economy. “They (Brics) tried to do a number on the United States, and if they do that, they are not going to be happy about what’s going to happen to them,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.  

 

This stance is similar to a previous statement from December, when Trump threatened punitive tariffs if Brics proceeded with efforts to reduce reliance on the US dollar.  

 

Brics’ push for de-dollarisation  

Brics nations have actively sought to decrease dependence on the US dollar in trade and finance. During the 15th BRICS Summit in 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasised the importance of de-dollarisation, stating, “Brics countries must expand settlements in national currencies and enhance cooperation between banks.”  

 

In June 2024, at a meeting in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Brics foreign ministers reaffirmed their commitment to reducing dollar reliance, expressing support for the “enhanced use of local currencies in bilateral and multilateral trade and financial transactions between the member countries”.  (With agency inputs)