With his Sunday night proclamation on Truth Social, “there will be no exceptions", US President Donald Trump reignited his personal and political war with BRICS. Announcing an additional 10 per cent tariff on nations aligning with what he called “anti-American policies," Trump opened Round 2 of a contest that is no longer purely economic, but ideological and geopolitical. His declaration, vague and unsubstantiated, follows a familiar script: make noise, intimidate, and impose economic punishment to reassert US dominance.

But the world Trump imagines—a world where countries quake at the mention of American tariffs—is vanishing fast. The BRICS bloc, long dismissed by Western analysts as a “talk shop" or “paper tiger," is slowly but unmistakably coming of age. And it is doing so in direct response to actions like these.

Trump’s Tariff Threats: A Boomerang Strategy

Trump’s economic nationalism is nothing new. In his first term, he applied the same tactic against China, the European Union, and even Canada and Japan—countries traditionally viewed as allies. But while he managed to extract some concessions, his trade war with China left global supply chains bruised, inflationary pressures high, and the American consumer footing the bill. It did not succeed in reshoring US manufacturing or taming China’s ambitions.

Now, his attempt to use the same hammer against BRICS is not only outdated but counterproductive. In threatening BRICS with a 100 per cent tariff six months ago if they dared challenge the dollar’s supremacy, Trump may have done more to accelerate de-dollarisation than any summit or policy paper could have. His latest move—imposing a 10 per cent tariff across........

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