Donald Trump’s newest thunderbolt is a 150-percent tariff on any BRICS nation that even talks about escaping the dollar. Behind the roar lies anxiety: America’s financial edge is slipping. The dollar once held 71 percent of global reserves; now it sits in the high-fifties. China and Russia settle most bilateral trade in yuan and rubles, India buys Russian oil in rupees, and Saudi Arabia weighs yuan sales. A cross-border digital-currency test called mBridge is wiring energy deals outside SWIFT. U.S. clout—sanctions, cheap Treasury funding—depends on keeping those pipes dollar-only. Tariffs try to freeze change, yet history warns of blowback: the 2018 trade war cut farm exports by \$27 billion and raised U.S. prices while China rerouted supply lines. A 150-percent wall would magnify that pain, stoke inflation, and spur BRICS to finish alternative rails like CIPS, SPFS and a mooted gold-linked “BRICS Clear.” The bloc need not unveil a single new currency; every local-currency deal erodes the petro-dollar a little more. America can keep the dollar first among equals by projecting stability, not shock tactics—because the harder you squeeze a system already shifting, the faster it slips from your grasp.
