Earlier this yr, Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, left Congress and relocated to america. Since then, he’s been lobbying for U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene on behalf of his father, who’s on trial for trying to overturn the 2022 Brazilian election. After months of cozying as much as energy gamers in Washington, together with eating with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Eduardo Bolsonaro lastly obtained what he wished for.
Final week, Trump introduced a sweeping 50 p.c tariff on all Brazilian exports to america starting Aug. 1. In a letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the left-wing chief who defeated Jair Bolsonaro three years in the past, Trump straight linked the tariffs to Bolsonaro’s authorized troubles and makes an attempt by Brazil’s Supreme Court docket to pressure U.S. social media firms to adjust to the nation’s digital security legal guidelines. In an echo of his personal timeworn protection in opposition to his varied indictments, Trump referred to as Bolsonaro’s trial a “Witch Hunt” and stated expenses ought to be dropped “IMMEDIATELY!”
Earlier this yr, Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, left Congress and relocated to america. Since then, he’s been lobbying for U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene on behalf of his father, who’s on trial for trying to overturn the 2022 Brazilian election. After months of cozying as much as energy gamers in Washington, together with eating with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Eduardo Bolsonaro lastly obtained what he wished for.
Final week, Trump introduced a sweeping 50 p.c tariff on all Brazilian exports to america starting Aug. 1. In a letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the left-wing chief who defeated Jair Bolsonaro three years in the past, Trump straight linked the tariffs to Bolsonaro’s authorized troubles and makes an attempt by Brazil’s Supreme Court docket to pressure U.S. social media firms to adjust to the nation’s digital security legal guidelines. In an echo of his personal timeworn protection in opposition to his varied indictments, Trump referred to as Bolsonaro’s trial a “Witch Hunt” and stated expenses ought to be dropped “IMMEDIATELY!”
Whereas Trump managed to show his authorized liabilities into political forex, it’s unlikely that he’ll be capable to export that dynamic to the Brazilian context. Certainly, the early indications are that his capricious choice to single out Brazil for purely punitive tariffs has been disastrous for Bolsonaro’s Brazilian supporters.
What was meant as a present of energy by MAGA and its Brazilian franchise has changed into a political present for Lula, who now will get to credibly current himself as a logo of nationwide resistance whereas leaving his opponents scrambling to decide on between loyalty to Bolsonaro and the financial pursuits of their very own base.
To start with, it’s most likely too late for Bolsonaro. Whereas he stays in style amongst many conservatives, Bolsonaro has already been barred from looking for workplace for the foreseeable future. Recently, he seems chastened, a far cry from the glowering reactionary chief who celebrated Brazil’s brutal navy dictatorship and continuously bucked institutional constraints. The proof in opposition to the previous president, who led the storming of his nation’s capital in 2023, is so damning that even his allies reportedly count on a conviction later this yr.
Trump’s second justification for his shock transfer was a protection of “the basic Free Speech Rights of Individuals.” These rights have supposedly been besieged by Brazil’s efforts to compel social media firms working on its soil to comply with home rules pertaining to the unfold of disinformation and on-line hate speech. However Trump is simply too late in embracing this drained narrative as properly. Months in the past, Brazil’s policing of sure posts on on-line platforms precipitated a furor amongst Brazil’s reactionaries and Silicon Valley zealots. Elon Musk himself advocated forcefully for X, previously often called Twitter, choosing a struggle with Brazilian Supreme Court docket Justice Alexandre de Moraes. However Musk has lengthy since backed down, the problem fading to the again of the transnational right-wing hive thoughts like so many scandals du jour.
So why is Trump appearing now? We are able to solely speculate provided that, as Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad put it, the brand new tariffs make little or no financial sense. One risk is that he merely needs an excuse to brandish his tariff stick once more. Although Brazilian exports to america account for lower than 2 p.c of the nation’s GDP, it exports greater than twice as a lot to China. Brazil’s democratic establishments, as Paul Krugman argues, thus have little believable incentive to bend to accommodate the non-public whims of the U.S. president.
Alternatively, Trump’s outburst may be linked to the BRICS summit that simply concluded in Rio de Janeiro. At the start of the summit, Trump threatened an extra 10 p.c tariff on any nation aligning with what he referred to as “anti-American” BRICS insurance policies—a part of a broader sample of portraying cooperative diplomacy inside international south international locations as a direct affront to Washington’s political and financial dominance. Consequently, BRICS leaders, who characterize a coalition of rising economies, emphasised their dedication to a multipolar international order and criticized the “indiscriminate rising of tariffs,” a thinly veiled rebuke of U.S. commerce coverage. Placing a finer level on it, Lula declared throughout the assembly that the world didn’t want or need an “emperor” shaping international commerce in response to his particular person pursuits.
Confronted with indicators of a shifting international order, Trump seems desirous to reassert American primacy via blunt-force protectionism. Nonetheless, his newest transfer could backfire.
Trying to bully Brazil, Latin America’s largest nation and the fourth-biggest democracy on Earth, is a shot throughout the bow for all BRICS nations. It dangers pushing Brazil—sarcastically, probably the most outstanding BRICS member to oppose increasing the bloc final yr to incorporate U.S. antagonists like Iran and Venezuela—additional into the camp of U.S. rivals like Russia and China.
Along with being dangerous coverage from Washington’s perspective, Trump’s transfer is extraordinarily dangerous politics for Brazilian conservatives. Lula has appeared more and more adrift within the second half of his third time period, struggling with a fractious Congress and record-low approval scores. A few of his allies and advisors have even questioned his run for reelection. Out of the blue, nevertheless, because of Trump, he has a galvanizing new message to unify Brazilians of each stripe: Brazil is a sovereign nation that won’t be pushed round.
“Doesn’t anybody on his workforce have the sense to elucidate to him to not insult one other nation like that?” Lula stated final week, expressing particular offense at the truth that Trump introduced the brand new tariffs on social media with no formal discover. “It’s unacceptable for international pursuits to override Brazilian sovereignty,” he added. Trump has inadvertently made Lula right into a bulwark in opposition to neocolonialism, a task the growing old firebrand can be very happy to play.
On high of all the pieces else, Trump and his Brazilian followers are additionally more likely to bear the blame for any financial headwinds Brazil may face between now and the 2026 Brazilian elections. If development numbers dip within the coming months, Lula will be capable to level to the damaging results of Trump’s heavy-handed interventionism. Thus, if Trump doesn’t again down on his tariff risk earlier than Aug. 1, formidable right-wing politicians plotting their post-Bolsonaro political futures can be pressured into the awkward place of both defending a coverage that can materially damage Brazilians or performing rhetorical gymnastics to by some means pin it on Lula.
Bolsonaro and his sons appear pleased to let their nation undergo for the sin of not renewing their grip on energy. However it’s arduous to consider Trump was truly suggested to take this plan of action by anybody who is aware of something about Latin America basically and Brazil specifically.
