Prominent South Africans reacted angrily on Sunday to President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose 100% tariffs on the BRICS countries if they tried to create an alternative to the U.S. dollar as the global reserve and trade currency.
As Breitbart News reported on Saturday:
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that countries in BRICS that try to “replace the mighty U.S. Dollar” would “face 100% Tariffs” and should also be prepared to “say goodbye to selling” in the United States economy.
BRICS, which stands for the countries of “Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa,” is described as being “an informal grouping of emerging economies hoping to increase their sway in the global order,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The group was established in 2009, with South Africa joining a year later.
The Council on Foreign Relations noted that BRICS has tried to “coordinate its members’ economic and diplomatic policies, found new financial institutions, and reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar.”
South Africa’s former Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, reacted angrily on X (formerly Twitter), telling Trump that “no country has a right to assert supremacy over others,” and telling African countries that “Trump’s threat” should be “a cue to diversify your economies especially trade arrangements.”
Later, after receiving responses from South Africans who actually agreed with Trump, Madonsela said that Trump’s logic was an example of “supremacist paradigms” that allowed ” Gender Based Violence (GBV) to prevail with impunity.”
I reject responses that say whoever has greater economic means must call the shots, that the wise move from those in a weaker economic position is to simply comply. Such supremacist paradigms enable pathologies like Gender Based Violence (GBV) to prevail with impunity.…
— Prof Thuli Madonsela #KindnessBuilds (@ThuliMadonsela3) December 1, 2024
The United States is South Africa’s second-biggest export destination, after China, as of 2022 data. The South African currency, the Rand, was once stronger than the dollar, but has declined significantly in value over several decades.
As Breitbart News has noted, the incoming Trump administration has unusual leverage to push for change in South Africa, with a key trade agreement up for renewal, and South Africa planning to host the G-20 next November.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
