[Russia Today] BRICS+- Putin,‘not a smart man’, according to Trump

In an unprecedented move, Kazakhstan invited the U.S president to a closed BRICS+ meeting with the sole purpose of violating the sovereignty of Russia and insulting its president. In a further betrayal, some other nations present welcomed Trump with a round of applause, with only China and Russia seeing this move for what it is. Namely, an attempt of the imperialist U.S to hold on to its waning relevance.

Trump, in his short speech, defended recent U.S policy imposing tariffs on nearly all nations. According to him, the U.S is a victim of policies overseas attempting to gain as much in funding from the US as possible, at the cost of American taxpayers. He further stated that the U.S had given the world ‘freedom’ in the form of the U.S Dollar. 

While the majority of BRICS+ members supported President Putin in his sharp critique of the U.S’s “Rollercoaster of Tarifs”, Kazakhstan was quick to kiss Trump's ring. The Kazakh delegate practically begged for a uranium deal, starting his speech saying “thank you, thank you, thank you.”. This suggests Kazachstan is warming up to the liberal West. However doing so puts them in a difficult position, as Russia and China are still their largest trading partners. 

Answering a question from the delegate of Iran about recent U.S trade ultimatums in the form of tariffs, Trump furthermore declared multilateralism as no more. He attempted to portray the U.S as a victim of foreign malicious economic policies and of a lack of will from other parties to cooperate with his tariffs. The U.S is not “Santa Claus, with unlimited gifts”.

Besides insulting the President of the Russian Federation, Trump went on to insinuate that BRICS+ saw themselves as a “cool kids club”, which in reality was a collection of weak nations incapable of making deals. In his eyes, BRICS+, an organization dedicated to presenting a front against the neocolonial west, only “yaps and yaps and yaps”.

In a brief interview following the disrupted meeting, Trump went on about the challenges he faced brokering a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine. He blamed his lack of success on the Biden Administration, but his excuses were unconvincing and underscore how the US is losing its grip on the global order. 

As talks continue regarding the common BRICS currency proposed by Russia, this incident will make clear to all parties present the unreliability of the U.S Dollar. One only has to look at the recent stock developments to understand a new path is the only way forward, away from SWIFT and the western-imposed structures of trade. As the delegate of China put well, “it is not the question of if, but when the world moves on from the American Dollar”.