Donald Trump, the President of the United States, has stepped up his attacks on the BRICS economic grouping, calling it a “attack on the dollar” and saying that his threats to impose tariffs had prompted member countries to pull out.
During a meal with Argentine President Javier Milei on Tuesday, President Trump was asked about the state of the US currency. He stressed how important the currency is by saying that any country that chooses to use the dollar is at a “greater advantage” than those who don’t.
The President then said that his win in the 2024 election was what kept the dollar’s status around the world. He said, “The dollar wouldn’t be in control if I hadn’t won the presidential election in 2024.”
The BRICS “attack” and Trump’s response with tariffs
Trump particularly called out BRICS, which includes India, as a threat to the US’s financial power. “And the BRICS taking over. I informed anyone who wants to join BRICS that it’s OK, but we’re going to charge your country tariffs. Everyone left. “The President said, “They’re all leaving BRICS.”
He went on to explain his punishment plan: “BRICS was an attack on the currency, and I said, if you want to play that game, I’m going to impose tariffs on all of your goods coming into the US. They said, like I stated, we’re leaving BRICS…They don’t even bring it up anymore.
The BRICS Bloc and the Move to Get Rid of the Dollar
BRICS started as an informal group in 2009 with Brazil, Russia, India, and China as founding members. South Africa joined in 2010. Recently, the bloc has grown a lot. In 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran all became full members. Indonesia joined in early 2025.
The main reason the group talks about the economy is to make it less dependent on the US dollar for international trade and less vulnerable to changes in the value of the currency. People often call this effort “de-dollarization.” It has included talks of getting people to use more of their own currency and the possibility of developing a “common currency” or “BRICS currency” for trade and investment within the bloc.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva brought up the notion of a unified BRICS currency at the 2023 Johannesburg summit. He said it would “give us more ways to pay and make us less vulnerable,” pointing to the financial burden created by the dollar’s rise in value in 2022. Experts have called the establishment of this new currency a “political project” that is hard to understand.
Trump’s Unchanging Position on Tariffs
President Trump has always been against the drive to do rid of the dollar. Before he ever took office, he said that if BRICS member countries tried to supplant the dollar as a reserve currency, he would put a huge 100 percent tariff on them.
In July of this year, during a broad wave of tariffs, Trump made a more direct threat: any country that “aligns itself with the Anti-American policies of BRICS” would have to pay an extra 10 percent, with “no exceptions.” He didn’t say what the “anti-American policies” were, but his prior comments made it apparent what he was going after: the efforts to stop the dollar.
India’s Position: Strategic Hedging
India is a founder member of BRICS, but it has tried to combine its commitment to the group with its strong ties to the US, which is its biggest trading partner.
In December 2024, before Trump’s inauguration, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar made India’s position clear by saying that New Delhi “has no interest in weakening the US dollar at all” and that “right now, there is no proposal to have a BRICS currency.” He said that India sees the dollar as a way to keep the global economy stable.
In March of this year, Minister Jaishankar said the same thing again. He also said that the US’s change in foreign policy under Trump was “expected” and “suits India in many ways” since it makes the globe more multipolar. He came to the conclusion that the BRICS member countries do not now have a common view on replacing the US dollar as the world’s currency.