BRICS set up to ‘hurt us’, ‘degenerate’ US dollar: Trump

President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed that BRICS was established to “hurt” the US and “degenerate” the dollar as he warned that the member countries of the bloc would face a 10 per cent tariff.

Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Reuters

Trump made the remarks while talking to reporters at the sixth Cabinet meeting at the White House.

“They have to pay 10 per cent if they are in BRICS,” he said.

Trump said BRICS was set up to “hurt us” and “degenerate our dollar” and take the dollar off as the standard.

“And that’s okay if they want to play that game, but I can play that game too. So anybody that’s in BRICS is getting a 10% charge,” he said, adding that this will be happening “pretty soon”.

“Well, if they’re a member of BRICS, they’re gonna have to pay a 10% tariff. Just for that one thing,” Trump said.

Trump claimed that BRICS “largely broke up” but “there are a couple that hang around”.

“BRICS is not, in my opinion, a serious threat. But what they’re trying to do is destroy the dollar so that another country can take over and be the standard, and we’re not going to lose the standard at any time,” he said, adding, “If you have a smart president, you will never lose the standard.”

“If we lost the world standard dollar, that would be like losing a war, a major world war; we would not be the same country any longer.

“We’re not going to let that happen…dollar is king, we’re going to keep it that way.

“If people want to challenge it, they can, but they’re going to have to pay a big price, and I don’t think any of them are willing to pay that price,” Trump said.

Leaders of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran — met in Brazil for the 17th BRICS Summit on July 6-7.

Trump on Sunday threatened to impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on countries aligning themselves with the “anti-American” policies of the BRICS grouping.