Over the weekend, while you were tossing back glizzies, trying to remember if that was a bottle rocket or a Roman candle, I dropped a fat, wet blanket on the whole thing. Sorry. But someone had to remind you: Wednesday, July 9, marks the end of Trump’s 90-day pause on sweeping new tariffs… aka the economic grenade he temporarily pulled the pin on back in April. That pause gave countries time to negotiate their way out of the blast radius. But now, time’s almost up… and Trump has made it clear he’s gonna take action at the deadline.

In fact, last night, he escalated things even further. In a Truth Social post (one that somehow avoided full caps lock), Trump warned: “Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy.” Of course, this didn’t come out of nowhere. BRICS (aka the “let’s screw the West” club originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) just held a summit in Rio, where they were probably trying to figure a way to fight back against Trump’s tariffs. 

And the clique’s gotten bigger. They’ve now brought in Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the UAE, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. That’s 11 countries total. This isn’t your average diplomatic book club either.  Together, they represent more than half the world’s population and about a third of global economic output. When they start floating ideas (like ditching the dollar or launching a new payment system) Wall Street doesn’t take too kindly (even if your average finance bro on Twitter tries to act chill about it).

(Source: CNBC)

During their joint statement, BRICS leaders attacked Trump’s trade tactics, calling them "unjustified" and a “threat to the global economy.” Trump’s response was a classic “you talkin’ sh*t?” energy. And we all know he’s not gonna be Mr. Nice Guy.

So here’s what’s coming next… Trump already announced the U.S. will start sending official “tariff letters” to trading partners this week. Think of it as getting served, but instead of a lawsuit, it’s your economy being slowly choked unless you fall in line. Countries have until August 1 to strike a deal. Otherwise, the full hammer drops. And only the UK and Vietnam have managed to squeeze out agreements so far (China has a partial one). Everyone else is still negotiating… or nervously refreshing their inbox.

Oh, and for extra chaos, Trump’s hinted at 30–50% tariffs for countries like Japan and the EU if they don’t fall in line. So if you thought this was just a BRICS thing… nah, he’s swinging at everybody. Meanwhile, China hit back saying tariffs aren’t helpful and warned the U.S. that "there are no winners in trade wars." (Fair, but also: China is developing an alternative currency to the dollar, so, pot… meet kettle?) And that’s not even mentioning the BRICS discussions around building a cross-border payment system to bypass the U.S. dollar entirely… something Trump previously said could trigger 100% tariffs.

Obviously, this goes way beyond Trump talking tough for the algorithm. These tariff threats have teeth… and they bite everything from supply chains to currency markets to commodity prices. After his latest post, the dollar spiked, metals tanked, and the Chinese yuan looked like it got hit by prime Conor McGregor.

You better believe that Wall Street’s watching closely… because they know tariffs are inflation’s favorite pre-workout. And if these tensions keep escalating, forget about China or Brazil… the entire global economy will start to look like it’s running on one lung and bad decisions.

The bigger fear is if BRICS says, “Screw it,” and actually follows through on dumping the dollar. They’ve already been flirting with cross-border payment systems and alternative currencies… now Trump may have just handed them the motivation to swipe right. And if that happens? Hold on to your horses… there will be plenty of buying opportunities in the near future.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News doesn’t hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.