Radical leftist President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva claimed on Thursday evening that President Donald Trump “lied” about Brazil being a poor trading partner and asserted that the South American country will not bow down to the U.S. government.
Lula delivered a new rant against President Trump during an official government event in the city of Recife after Trump criticized Brazil’s tariff policies and the ongoing “political execution” of conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro in remarks given to reporters at the Oval Office earlier that day. According to Lula, Trump “decided to tell some lies about Brazil” by saying that the U.S. had trade losses with Brazil.
“It is a lie when the U.S. president says that Brazil is a bad trading partner,” Lula said. “Brazil is good, it just won’t bow down to the U.S. government.”
“You are seeing on television a number of lies spoken against Brazil by the U.S. government. He decided to tell some lies about Brazil, and we are refuting them,” he continued. “He said he had losses in trade with Brazil, but he only has profits.”
President Trump, answering a reporter who asked if he was concerned about Brazil, Mexico, and Latin America “getting closer to China” over his tariff policies, described Brazil as a “horrible trading partner in terms of tariffs,” which appears to have angered Lula.
“As you know, they charge us tremendous tariffs – far, far more than we were charging them. We weren’t charging anything, essentially. And Brazil has some very bad laws happening where they took a president [Bolsonaro] and they put him in jail, or they’re trying to jail him,” President Trump said. “And I happen to know the man. And I will tell you, I’m pretty good at people, I think he’s an honest man.”
“I think what they’ve done, this is an electric — this is really a political execution that they’re trying to do with Bolsonaro,” Trump assessed. “I think that’s terrible. But they also treated us very badly as trading partners for many, many years, one of the worst, one of the worst countries on earth for that.”
“They charged tremendous tariffs and they made it very difficult to do anything. So, now they’re being charged 50 percent tariffs. And they’re not happy, but that’s the way it goes,” he concluded.
Lula reportedly described himself as a “man of peace” during the Thursday event and asserted that he does not want a fight with Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina, China, or anyone else — but stressed that “they need to know that there is only one person who can make us change our position. Because this country belongs to the Brazilian people, and it is the Brazilian people who rule it.”
The Brazilian president referred to Trump’s defense of Bolsonaro and claimed that Trump would have been on trial if the events of January 6, 2021, had taken place in Brazil instead — repeating an assertion he also made on Wednesday.
“What Trump is concerned about is that you remember that his speeches were the same as those of the other guy here [Bolsonaro]. That the elections were not serious, that he couldn’t lose, and he invaded the Capitol,” Lula reportedly said. “I tell President Trump, if you lived in Brazil and you had done what you did in the United States, here you would also be tried and, if found guilty, you would go to jail.”
Former President Bolsonaro stands accused of allegedly plotting to stage a “coup” and overturn the results of the highly controversial 2022 presidential election, in which Lula narrowly defeated Bolsonaro. Several Brazilian government officials, such as Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, have claimed that Bolsonaro allegedly played a “central role” in the events of January 8, 2023, when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the premises of Brazil’s Congress, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, and Planalto presidential palace, causing significant damage to the facilities, furniture, and priceless historical artifacts housed therein.
No deaths and only minor injuries were documented during the incident. Bolsonaro was visiting the United States at that time and returned to Brazil in March.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in July identifying Brazil as a national security threat to the United States and imposing a 50-percent tariff on Brazilian goods entering the United States, which went into effect in early August. President Trump cited the ongoing persecution against Jair Bolsonaro as one of the main reasons to impose the tariff.
Although President Trump has said that Lula can “call him anytime” to discuss tariffs, Lula has publicly claimed that he would not “humiliate” himself and call Trump. This week, Lula further claimed that the Brazilian government has tried to negotiate with the United States through various channels, but that there is “no one to talk to.” He also declared Brazil a “much more democratic” country than the United States.
Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad also claimed this week that the United States allegedly cited a “lack of agenda” to cancel a meeting between him and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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