DISCLAIMER: This article was first published in January 2025
Whatever the strengths that have allowed Donald Trump, twice now, to win election to the presidency, a mastery of geopolitics is not among them. This was demonstrated Monday, his first day back in office, when Trump got confused over which countries are part of the BRICS bloc.
According to a New Republic story, the gaffe came when Trump was speaking to reporters as he signed a series of day-one executive orders.
It started when a reporter asked Trump about his longstanding complaint about NATO- namely, that some member states do not spend five percent of their GDP on defense.
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“Spain is very low. And yet, are they a BRICS nation?,” Trump asked. “They’re a BRICS nation, Spain. You know what a BRICS nation is? You’ll figure it out.”
“And if the BRICS nations want to do that, that’s OK, but we’re gonna put at least 100 percent tariff on the business they do with the United States,” Trump added.
We need to talk about the president’s age and memory and mental health. https://t.co/X01Ix7XvWa
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 21, 2025
Spain is not part of BRICS, the letters of which stand for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa; it is an organization of countries that are not a part of the G7. Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, UAE, and Iran have joined BRICS, but the name and acronym have not changed. Spain is a part of NATO and the European Union but not BRICS.
Not only was it a gaffe, but per an Associated Press story with a Barcelona dateline, the comment led to “some head-scratching and jitters” in Spain, among officials who feared the possibility of, as Trump said, “a 100 percent tariff.”
“I don’t know if the affirmation made by President Trump was the result of a mix-up or not, but I can confirm that Spain is not in BRICS,” Spanish Education Minister and government spokesperson Pilar Alegría said, per the AP.
Since his first campaign, Trump has often been critical of NATO and its member states, which he feels aren’t pulling their weight.
“I said here’s the problem with NATO: it’s obsolete,” Trump said during a 2016 campaign stop.
During the Biden presidency, the administration was a steadfast supporter of NATO, especially when it came to defending Ukraine from the Russian invasion. However, what Trump will do regarding that is very much up in the air.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
