It’s difficult to say, as the organization itself seems to remain out of the headlines except during their annual summit. But some of their individual member nations have been very much in the news lately, in ways that would appear to be giving the bloc a substantial boost in achieving its ultimate goal — which is nothing less than the establishment of a new world order to replace the existing Western-dominated political and economic systems.

And Donald Trump’s misguided war against Iran is playing right into their hands.

Last year, on February 24, 2025, I posted an article titled “BRICS is Dead; Long Live BRICS,” which read in part:

*. *. *

What he (Trump) said last week — after threatening the BRICS member nations with 150% tariffs if they attempted to promote an alternative currency to the U.S. dollar — was this:

“BRICS states were trying to destroy our dollar. They wanted to create a new currency. So when I came in, the first thing I said was any BRICS state that even mentions the destruction of the dollar will be charged a 150% tariff, and we don’t want your goods and the BRICS states just broke up. . . . I don’t know what the hell happened to them. We haven’t heard from the BRICS states lately.” [NDTV.com, February 21, 2022.]

It’s difficult to separate the truth from the imaginary in anything said by someone who can’t remember his own words. Because in January, Trump had threatened — not 150% — but a 100% tariff if the BRICS nations wanted to “play games.” [NDTV.com, February 14, 2022.] At a press briefing at that time, he was asked whether he wanted to dismantle BRICS or become a part of it, to which he responded:

“I don’t care, but BRICS was put there for a bad purpose and most of those people don’t want it. They don’t even want to talk about it now. They’re afraid to ask about it because I told them if they want to play games with the dollar, then they’re going to be hit with a 100 per cent tariff. The day they mention that they want to do it and they will come back and say we beg you, we beg you not to do this. BRICS is dead since I mentioned that. BRICS died the minute I mentioned that and now I remember when Obama and Biden, in particular, I guess he said that oh, they have us over a barrel.” [Id.] [Bold emphasis is mine.]

I just want to know one thing: What on earth has Donald Trump been smoking?!! Because there is not one phrase in all of that gobbledegook that makes an ounce of sense.

To begin with, BRICS is neither dead nor dying. If they were, would they have added five new members — Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates — since last year, doubling their size? And would they have added a new membership category — “Partner States” — in 2024 to accommodate the integration of prospective members?

Those Partner States are effectively observers, not yet officially part of the BRICS bloc, but guaranteed of support from the full members. Thus far, some 22 countries have been invited to become Partner States. Only three — Algeria, Turkiye and Vietnam — had not yet confirmed their status as of mid-January.

And if, as Trump would like to believe, BRICS were indeed finished, would they even now be busily planning their 2025 Summit in July, to be hosted in Brazil?

To be sure, Donald Trump is not wrong in considering BRICS a threat to U.S. supremacy — in fact, to the entire structure of the Western world. It was founded by Vladimir Putin in 2009 for the sole purpose of building an organization strong enough to run counter to NATO, the EU, the G7, and — who knows? — possibly even the United Nations.

But if Trump thinks throwing tariffs at the member states is going to cause them to put their chairs back on the table and slink home in defeat, he is living in an alternate reality.

Because, with Vladimir Putin at the helm, it isn’t going to be that easy.

*. *. *

That was then. Fast-forward to March 2026, with the U.S. and Israel bombarding Iran and killing off its leaders, and Iran retaliating by attacking U.S. and Israeli interests throughout the Middle East . . . and, perhaps most significantly, closing the Strait of Hormuz to virtually all oil shipments — normally 20 percent of the world’s supply — thereby plunging international energy systems and markets into total chaos.

Do you remember the French uprising of 1832 as depicted in Les Miserables . . . and how the opportunist innkeeper and his wife benefited by robbing the dead of their valuables? It was a vivid illustration of a fact of life: that from every tragedy, someone finds a way to profit from other people’s misery.

And today, it is BRICS, and a number of its members, that will reap the benefits from Trump’s fiasco. Case in point:

In a futile effort to mitigate the worldwide surge in energy prices resulting from his disastrous actions, Trump has already eased sanctions against Russia, allowing it to continue selling oil to China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Hungary, Slovakia and others. Russia thereby profits financially, enabling it to refill its war chest and continue its brutal invasion of Ukraine. And the purchasers obviously benefit from the availability of that cheap Russian oil.

As for China, they received an added boon when Pakistan made a deal with Iran to allow a Pakistani tanker, the MT KARACHI, through the Hormuz Strait on the condition that payment be made — not in dollars, euros, or any other Western currency — but in Chinese yuan.

Note that Russia, China, India, Brazil and Iran are all members of BRICS, and Pakistan has applied for membership. The fact that Chinese yuan are now being accepted — in fact, preferred — as payment on the world market cannot be coincidental.

BRICS is far from dead; on the contrary, it would appear to be making significant progress toward its ultimate goal. And, intentionally or otherwise, Donald Trump is helping to accelerate the process by creating the perfect conditions for its growth.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
3/19/26