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The world does not need an emperor: Lula's savage response to Trump

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National Heraldpublisher-detail-arrow
08th July, 2025 13:22 IST

“The world has changed. We don’t want an emperor,” said Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — without taking the US president’s name — in response to Donald Trump’s threat to impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on ‘anti-American’ BRICS countries.

India’s silence on the topic has been conspicuous, raising questions about its role in BRICS. Now, India is being seen as a ‘Trojan horse’ in the group of nations, says a former president of the New Development Bank.

Officially, BRICS has not reacted to the US president’s threat of imposing additional tariffs. Earlier this year, Trump had described the Brazil–Russia–India–China–South Africa grouping, with five other allied nations, as “dead”.

Donald Trump bullies BRICS, which is unlikely to call his bluff

While the BRICS leaders’ summit concluded in Rio de Janeiro on 7 July, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was closely watching BRICS and would impose a 10 per cent additional tariff if BRICS took steps against American interests.

In a separate post he issued a direct threat to Lula and expressed his support for Lula’s predecessor in office, Jair Bolsonaro, calling for Brazil to stop the ‘witch hunt’ against him. Bolsonaro is being tried for his alleged role in engineering a coup against Lula.

The Brazilian president reacted indignantly and posted on X that Brazil is a sovereign nation and will not tolerate either interference or instruction from another country.

During a press conference at the conclusion of the BRICS summit, Lula said, “I don’t think it is very responsible and serious for a president… of a country the size of the US to threaten the world over the internet — it’s not right.”

He said the BRICS members were a group of emerging economies and were “sovereign countries”, and noted that they too had the same right to levy taxes as Washington.

“Frankly, there are other things and other ways for the US president to talk to other countries. People need to understand that respect is good — we like to give it, and we like to get it in return,” he said.

While the various BRICS leaders refrained from commenting on the threat emanating from the White House, their formal declaration condemned arbitrary tariffs, unilateralism and protectionism — without naming the US.

Russia, China and Iran also reacted critically to the threat; but the remaining founding member of the group, India, maintained a conspicuous silence. Neither Prime Minister Modi, who attended the summit, nor the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi reacted to the threat.

Lula confirmed that Trump’s threats were not discussed during the BRICS meetings, but contended that some critics had been rattled by the bloc’s growing success in uniting the Global South and amplifying its voice on the world stage.

While three founding members of BRICS — Brazil, Russia and China — and late-entrant Iran have been vocal about the need for an alternative to the dollarisation of their economies and the urgency to trade in their local currencies, India has been advocating moderation.

India has also not been enthusiastic about another BRICS initiative under the Brazilian presidency — namely, taxing the super-rich. This appears to have caused some disquiet among members.

A Brazilian economist and a former vice-president of the New Development Bank in Shanghai, set up as an alternative to the World Bank at the initiative of BRICS, has now candidly said that some people in BRICS see India as a ‘trojan horse’ planted by the West.

Ironically, the presidency of BRICS passes on to India next year.

Chinese president Xi Jinping, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Iranian president Massoud Pezeshkian gave the summit in Brazil a miss. It will be interesting to see whether they attend the summit in India in 2026.

Economist Paulo Nogueiran Batista, Jr, said in an interview last week that India had been reluctant to call out the “rogue super power” — the United States. How can India support Israel, he asked, wondering what it says about India when it does that.

“India has been a problem, a major problem in BRICS,” he quipped.

“I understand what the motivations of India are,” he added, however.

“You know, also, India fears China and feels the need to maintain a certain proximity with the US. But that has become a major factor of weakness inside the BRICS grouping, in my opinion,” he concluded.

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