Donald Trump Pitches the Idea of Removing American Sanctions on Iran and Russia

Trump believes that the overuse of sanctions could threaten the dollars hegemony

Former President Donald Trump recently put forward the idea of lifting sanctions on Iran and Russia at The Economic Club of New York on September 16, 2024. 

He argued that  economic sanctions are undermining the American dollar and hurting the United State’s financial standing on the world stage.

Trump‘s demand for the removal of sanctions is based on the belief that economic penalties imposed on enemies of the US Empire are generating unintended consequences for the US dollar. 

Sanctions have been an integral plank of the national security regime’s agenda to curtail the rise of emerging regional powers, such as China, Iran, and Russia have blown up in the US’s face as these Eurasian countries have looked for alternative commerce and financial systems. This has placed downward pressure on the demand for American dollars. 

"I was a user of sanctions, but I put them on and take them off as quickly as possible, because ultimately it kills your dollar and kills everything the dollar represents. We have to continue to have that be the world currency." Trump continued, "You're losing Iran. You're losing Russia. China is out there trying to get their currency to be the dominant currency."

Throughout his presidency, Trump broadened sanctions on both Iran and Russia, which includes penalties on Russia after its annexation of Crimea, in addition to sanctions on Iran as part of his administration’s scrapping of the Iran nuclear deal. The Biden regime has continued sanctioning Russia over it’s military incursion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. These sanctions were implemented to isolate the two countries and degrade their economic capacity by constricting their access to financial institutions and international markets.

Recognizing the deleterious nature of sanctions, Trump believes that lifting these sanctions could jumpstart the US dollar and bar countries such as Iran and Russia from forging geoeconomic ties with China and other Eurasian actors. 

The US’s foreign policy is schizophrenic to say the least. It serves the interests of a detached elite who has zero concerns about the livelihood of Middle America. The US needs to have a normal foreign policy of restraint, where it’s only focusing on securing the Western Hemisphere and its southern border with Mexico — the only areas of vital strategic interest to the US. 

From there, the US should pursue an economic nationalist agenda that’s decoupled from China and restrictive immigration policies that prevent geopolitical rivals from establishing 5th columns on American soil. This requires no punitive actions by the US against countries located thousands of miles away.