US President-elect Donald Trump takes office for his second non-consecutive term as the 47th president of the United States. Picture: Melina Mara / POOL / AFP
Image: Melina Mara / POOL / AFP
Donald Trump, the US's 47th president is not well versed in world affairs.
This became evident when In his first few hours in office, the convicted felon and former reality star was caught in a flurry of lies and misinformation,
One of the most amusing ones was when the 78-year-old assumed that the S in the BRICS bloc stands for Spain, not South Africa. When a journalist asked Trump about NATO countries who do not fulfil the group's standard of 2% of economic output on defence in the Oval Office, he incorrectly said that Spain was a member of BRICS.
BRICS refers to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The European nation was placed bottom in the 32-nation military alliance, with defence spending estimated at 1.28% last year.
Trump added that, "Spain is very low," alluding to the country's defence spending, but he moved on to discuss the BRICS and committed the faux pas (significant or embarrassing error or mistake).
"They’re a BRICS nation, Spain. Do you know what a BRICS nation is? You’ll figure it out," he said.
The moment has gone viral with Trump being accused of being clueless, incompetent and just plain stupid. Political commentator Adam Mockler said: "The president of the US does not even have a fundamental understanding of the alliances the country is engaged in. Not only is this clip embarrassing for Trump but for America on the global stage."
Closer to home, Trump's blunder was received humorously as South Africans are happy to let the US president to lay it on Spain instead of Mzansi.
"You know what...As a South African, I'm going to just let it slide if he thinks the S in BRICS is for Spain," an X user posted.
Another responded to the post, saying that Elon Musk would drop the ball. "Although Elon would definitely rat us out, he hates us!"
Trump has threatened BRICS nations with 100% tariffs if they replace the dollar.
"If the BRICS nations want to do that, that's okay, but we're going to put at least a 100% tariff on the business they do with the United States," the billionaire said on Monday.
De-dollarisation has been a goal for the bloc. While other nations quickly distanced themselves from the pursuit of de-dollarisation, geopolitical expert Joe Mhlanga said Trump, like past US leaders, was deploying a colonial mindset that would harm the US economy.
"BRICS members are aware of the threats before them. They knew they would face difficulties ahead, so they voluntarily decided to create an alternative to boost their economies as they felt the other global institutions and forums were not helping their economies."
IOL