Punditry over trade wars overlooked the bigger picture as President-elect Donald Trump dropped another tariff threat to China and its allies to safeguard the U.S. economy.
“They can go find another ‘sucker!'”
Contrasting the fabricated fears of fascism despite four years of evidence to the contrary, corporate media spent considerable time ignoring the successes of the GOP leader’s economic policies during his first term. As talking heads hemmed and hawed over tariff threats, Trump proposed another one to the China-led BRICS nations at 100% should they dare threaten “de-dollarization.”
Taking to social media, the president-elect focused on the intergovernmental organization, originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa before adding Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates, as he stated, “The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER.”
“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,” added Trump. “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.”
Originally meant to focus on investment opportunities between the varied nations, the expansion had included conversations of “de-dollarization” in Aug. 2023 that had many experts warning that the U.S. Dollar’s position as the global reserve currency was at risk.
“The US is absolutely in danger of losing global reserve currency status,” research fellow E.J. Antoni of the Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget had told The Daily Caller News Foundation at the time. “The threat has increased because the Biden administration has devalued the dollar by an astonishing 16% and also weaponized the dollar abroad.”
In June, Antoni had reacted to Treasury Department sanctions on Russia and expressed, “If the Biden administration were intentionally trying to destroy the dollar, I’m not sure what they’d do differently. His spendthrift agenda has resulted in the dollar losing one-fifth of its value in less than four years, and his international policies have done even more harm by eroding the dollar’s reserve currency status. By freezing and then eventually stealing dollars owned by foreigners, Biden sent a clear message to the world that the dollar is no longer a safe asset.”
Meanwhile, as China-backed efforts to develop a central bank digital currency through Project mBridge paved the way for a potential BRICS Bridge, nearly a trillion dollars in trade of goods-and-services had been exchanged between China and India combined with the United States in 2022, with the bulk at nearly $758.4 with the former, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Thus far, Trump’s tariff threats had faced heavy criticism from the typical naysaying talking heads while he had managed to spark reactions from leaders in Canada and Mexico well before returning to the White House.
Along with a visit to Mar-a-Lago from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who’d called the GOP leader within hours of his 25% tariff threat, Trump had asserted that a “wonderful conversation” with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had included her agreement “to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”
Contrasting other panelists on CNN, entrepreneur and investor Kevin O’Leary had suggested that Trump raise the stakes even higher, proposing the U.S. “go to DEFCON One with China — tariffs 400%.”
“I brought it up. Bring the supreme leader to Washington or crush his economy until he has riots in the streets for food,” he said on “CNN NewsNight” amid debates on the 25% tariffs. “This is the time to really put the screws in.”
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