Opinion | How Trump’s anti-Brics crusade is giving bloc new strength and meaning

At first glance, US President Donald Trump’s renewed “America first” agenda seems aimed at the heart of the Brics bloc of developing nations. With threats of punitive tariffs and direct provocations, Trump has positioned Brics as a target in his second term. Yet rather than splitting the bloc apart, his aggressive policies are fortifying it.

Since returning to power, Trump has vowed to punish countries trying to create an alternative to the US dollar, including a threat of 100 per cent tariffs on those attempting to challenge the US currency. As last month’s Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro came to a close, he threatened to charge any country supporting the bloc’s “anti-American policies” an additional 10 per cent tariff.

He invited Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal General Asim Munir to a private lunch at the White House in June. More recently, after slapping a 25 per cent tariff on Indian exports, Trump announced an additional 25 per cent tariff over its purchases of discounted Russian oil, a move India’s Ministry of External Affairs condemned as “unjustified and unreasonable”.

Trump’s relationship with Russia is little better. While he has positioned himself as a would-be peacemaker between Russia and Ukraine – raising the prospect of luring Russia away from China in a reversal of Richard Nixon – in reality he has only heightened the risks of a nuclear war.

In response to remarks by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev about Russia’s nuclear strike capabilities, Trump said on social media that he had ordered US nuclear submarines to be positioned in “the appropriate regions”. The Russian foreign ministry followed up by declaring that Moscow was no longer bound by a moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range nuclear missiles.