After Tariff Threats, Brazil, Like Canada, Unites In Giving Trump The Finger
It's so touching how he brings people together like that!
Last week, Donald Trump threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on products from Brazil because he was mad at that country for actually prosecuting former President Jair Bolsonaro for trying to pull off a coup after losing the 2022 elections. Bolsonaro is already prohibited from running again for president next year, and Brazil’s supreme court is likely to convict him at trial later this summer, because it’s not like he can claim he led a coup attempt by accident. He faces up to 43 years in prison if convicted.
Trump informed Bolsonaro’s elected successor, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, that holding Bolsonaro accountable was “a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!” Trump also demanded fairer trade between Brazil and the US by August 1, or the tariff on Brazilian goods would jump from its current 10 percent to a whopping 50 percent.
Let us remind you again that the USA actually has a $7.4 billion trade surplus with Brazil.
But instead of scaring Brazil into submission, Trump’s declaration of trade war with Brazil mostly just pissed people off, leading to demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and a boost in popularity for Lula, whose polls had been slumping before Trump tried to bully South America’s largest economy.
In São Paulo, protesters burned an effigy of Trump; one woman posted a photo of the effigy to Instagram with the caption “Laranjão safado,” Portuguese for “big orange dirtbag.” Demonstrators hoisted up a big banner reading “Nice try Trump. But we’re not afraid.”
All hail Trump the Miraculous: He turned Brazilians into Canadians!
The backlash was not what Bolsonaro and his family had been hoping for. One son, Eduardo, who “exiled” himself to the US earlier this year and has his own presidential ambitions if he returns to Brazil, spent months lobbying US officials on his father’s behalf. Another son Flávio, who’s currently a member of Brazil’s Senate, urged Lula to offer amnesty to the former president. He warned that it would be way better to drop the prosecution of his father than to risk Trump’s wrath, comparing Brazil to Japan at the end of WWII and insisting, “It’s up to us to show the responsibility to avoid two atomic bombs landing on Brazil.”
Instead, Trump’s threats have touched off anger at the US and helped Lula, who pledged not to knuckle under to Trump. Even the conservative newspaper Estado de São Paulo ran an editorial Tuesday saying “Jair Bolsonaro couldn’t care less about Brazil. He’s a phony patriot.” The paper also accused Bolsonaro of acting like a kidnapper, only the hostage in this case was Brazil’s economy. It’s time, the editorial said, for Brazilian conservatives “to choose their side: Brazil's or Bolsonaro's. These are two absolutely antithetical paths.” Or at least that’s Google’s translation.
Estado de São Paulo columnist Eliane Cantanhêde wrote that Trump’s “indecent proposal” had backfired badly by saving Lula’s presidency when his public support was in a rut. Now, she said, Lula can portray himself as a popular nationalist out to save Brazil’s biggest commodity industries like coffee, oranges, and beef, as well as its aviation industry, which sells lots of short-haul jets to American regional airlines.
“Lula was on the ropes,” Cantanhêde said, highlighting the leftist’s falling ratings and growing doubts over his ability to win a fourth term next year. “Now he’s all smiles.”
She said Beijing – Brazil’s biggest trade partner – would also be celebrating as Washington further damaged its standing in the region. “Trump is pushing the whole world into China’s lap,” Cantanhêde said.
Hey, that’s going to be the effect of Trump’s war on clean energy, too! Maybe we’ve had it all wrong and he’s actually more of a Chinese asset than a Russian one!
The backlash has even led Bolsonaro to come out against Trump’s tariffs, although of course he’s blaming the threats on Lula’s “provocation” of the US — again, that would be holding Bolsonaro accountable for his failed coup attempt. Bolsonaro also insisted that he could make things a lot better if Brazil’s government would only give him “the freedom to talk to Trump.” Hey, why not let him be president and he could for sure cozy up to Trump, while also going back to destroying the Amazon rainforest, which has seen far less deforestation under Lula.
No telling whether Trump will continue to lash out at Brazil, but it seems likely because while he’s never learned how tariffs work, or who appointed his own appointees, he does have an amazing memory for grudges.
Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. If you can, please become a paid subscriber, or if you’d prefer to make a one-time donation, this button is rainforest friendly.
It is good to know that the people of so many countries are on OUR side.
"[...]Trump’s 'indecent proposal' had backfired badly by saving Lula’s presidency when his public support was in a rut."
I feel like there might be a lesson in there somewhere for wishy-washy American opposition party politicians...