US President Donald Trump’s hard-talking aide, Peter Navarro, has echoed his boss’s dislike for the BRICS bloc, saying the alliance members have historically all “hated and killed each other”.
Taking on each of the main members of the BRICS alliance, Navarro spared none in his latest diatribe targeting the nations and their “vampire-like” trade practices that “exploit” the United Nations.
BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, with Indonesia joining in 2025.
“I don't see how the BRICS alliance stays together since historically they all hate each other and kill each other,” Navarro said in an interview with a US-based show on Monday.
Continuing his rant against India for importing Russian oil, for which the US also “penalised” the country with the highest-ever 50 per cent tariffs, Navarro took a leaf out of history books to remind the world that India has been “at war with China for decades” and that "it was China that gave Pakistan a nuclear bomb”.
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“And I just remembered, yeah, it was China that gave Pakistan a nuclear bomb. You got ships flying around the Indian Ocean now with Chinese flags. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, see how you kind of work that out,” he said, adding that “Russia is in bed with China”.
Navarro also wished Russian President, Vladimir Putin, "good luck" for fighting Beijing’s attempts at “massive illegal immigration” in Siberia. The aide claimed Beijing has its sights on the Russian port of Vladivostok, and that it is already “colonising Siberia, which is the biggest land mass of the Russian semi-empire”.
Brazil’s economy, meanwhile, the Trump aide said, is “going down the tubes” because of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s “socialist policies”.
Trump has been a staunch critic of Brazilian officials for their "persecution" of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest and is on trial for allegedly plotting a coup following his loss in the 2022 presidential election. He also imposed an additional 40 per cent levy on Brazil for charging Bolsonaro. Calling the charges “unjust”, Navarro said Brazilian officials had kept “the real leader of that country in a cell”.
The “bottom line”, Navarro said, is that “none of the countries in the grouping can survive if they don't sell to the United States”. “And when they sell to the United States, their exports, they're like vampires sucking our blood dry with their unfair trade practices,” he accused further.
Listing the “great" trade deals that the US has inked with the European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia, Navarro said "all these countries are working very closely with us” because they realise that “they've been taking too much advantage of the US and also because they need American markets”.
Earlier, in a post on X, Navarro had said India has the largest population in the world and “all it can do is manage a few hundred thousand X propagandists to jerk around a poll? Too funny. America: look at how foreign interests use our social media to advance their agenda.”
Also Read: Jobs, exports, growth at risk: How US tariffs may hit India
In the interview, Navarro went on to warn India, saying it “must come around” at some point on trade negotiations with the US, or it “won’t end well” for the country.
Describing India as the "Maharajah" of tariffs, Navarro said “they have the highest tariffs in any major country in the world against the United States. We got to deal with that”.
With Russia being at war with Ukraine, which Trump claims he wants to stop, Navarro said the road to peace in the region “runs partly” through New Delhi, hinting at the US's growing pressure on India to stop buying Russian oil and indirectly “funding” the conflict.
"I think that what's got to happen is India's got to stop buying Russian oil. That's going to be good for the whole peace; the road to peace partly runs through New Delhi. Europe certainly has to stop buying Russian oil...” he said.
Harping on the “art of diplomacy” in Trump’s trade politics, Navarro said the US imposed 50 per cent additional tariffs on China, “which is the largest purchaser of Russian oil”, in its bid to do "the best we can in terms of negotiating to protect the American people without hurting the American people”.
“You just got to trust in Trump,” he said.
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