For many decades the US dollar has been the reserve currency of the capitalist world.VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
For many decades the US dollar has been the reserve currency of the capitalist world.
This has enabled the US Treasury to fund US deficits and debts by just printing more US Treasury Bills and relying on other major countries to buy the Bills in order to gain US dollars for trade purposes.
In 2012 a British Bank, Standard Chartered, was fined $340 million for using US dollars in a trade deal with Iran, in defiance of American laws but not breaking any British laws!
When Trump came to power, he tried to stem the tide of other countries moving against the US dollar as the world reserve currency. He withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) which comprised six countries - USA, UK, Russia, China, Germany and France.
Then, beating his chest, Trump announced sanctions against any country trading with Iran.
This was like lifting a rock and dropping it on his own feet. European imperialist countries, France, UK and Germany set up the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX).
This was a non-US dollar mechanism for trade with Iran to avert US sanctions.
In symbolic terms this represented a major shift in the international financial/monetary system, sending off alarm bells to finance capital in the USA. It was the first time major allies of the USA had created an alternative to the US dollar payment system.
Imagine if Russia and China followed. Voices started to be raised questioning the whole dependence of the capitalist world on the US dollar system for trade purposes.
Far from "making America great again", Trump was making his own ruling class vulnerable.
Time, they thought, to "dump Trump"!