Radical leftist President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Monday that he will reach a “definitive solution” on a trade deal with President Donald Trump “in a few days” after meeting with Trump in Malaysia on Sunday.
Lula claimed to reporters that he will make Trump realize that former President Jair Bolsonaro “is practically nothing.” Trump cited the political persecution of Bolsonaro as one of the reasons to impose tariffs on Brazil in August.
Trump and Lula met in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday on the sidelines of the 47th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The private meeting, which reportedly lasted around 45 minutes, marked the first official encounter between both presidents after Trump signed an executive order in June identifying Brazil as a national security threat and imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods entering the United States.
President Trump was accompanied in the meeting by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Lula was accompanied by Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, Presidential Advisor Audo Faleiro, and Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade, and Services Márcio Elias Rosa.
Prior to the meeting, President Trump explained in remarks to the press that he thinks both countries will be able to reach some “very good agreements” and will end up having a very good relationship.
In an executive order published in June, President Trump cited the years-long political persecution campaign against conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro as one of the reasons to impose tariffs on Brazil. Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and 3 months in prison for allegedly plotting to stage a “coup” and overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election, which Lula narrowly won. At press time, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) has not determined in which prison Bolsonaro will serve his sentence. The former president remains under a strict house arrest since August and was diagnosed with skin cancer in September.
Asked by Brazilian journalists about how he felt about Bolsonaro, President Trump said he has always liked him and that he felt bad about what happened to the former president. Lula remained silent and made a few gestures while Trump spoke about Bolsonaro. Trump was then asked if the matter of Bolsonaro would be discussed with Lula, to which Trump replied, “that’s none of your business.”
Brazilian outlets reported that Lula’s delegation mentioned the matter of former President Jair Bolsonaro and the cancellation of U.S. visas and sanctions imposed on STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes under the Global Magnitsky Act during the private meeting. According to the Brazilian representatives, President Trump made no comments on the subject during the meeting.
After leaving Malaysia, President Trump told reporters on Air Force one that he had a “good meeting” with Lula, but stressed, “I don’t know if anything’s going to happen, but we’ll see” with regards to a prospective trade deal.
Lula, still in Kuala Lumpur, held a press conference on Monday morning and expressed optimism about the United States’ potential suspension of tariffs ahead of a prospective trade deal “in a few days.”
“Yesterday, at the meeting [with Trump], I got the impression that soon there will be no problem between the United States and Brazil,” Lula reportedly said. “I am convinced that, in a few days, we will have a definitive solution between the United States and Brazil so that life can continue to be good and joyful, as Gonzaguinha said in his song.”
The Brazilian president reinforced to the press that the United States has a trade surplus with Brazil and as such there is no need to tariff Brazilian goods. Lula said he delivered a document to President Trump’s delegation listing the topics he intends to address in upcoming negotiations.
“I am not demanding anything that is not fair to Brazil, and I have on my side the truest and most absolute truth in the world: The United States does not have a deficit with Brazil, which was the explanation for the famous taxation to the world, that the United States would only tax countries with which they had a trade deficit,” Lula said.
Asked by journalists if Trump had made any promises to Brazil, Lula said that he is not a saint to receive promises and that, for him, “what he has to do is make a commitment. And the commitment he made is that he intends to make a very good agreement with Brazil.”
On Jair Bolsonaro, Lula said that he had a “positive” conversation with Trump in which he emphasized that Bolsonaro is “a thing of the past.” Lula, claimed that Trump “knows that ‘the king is dead, long live the king.’”
“I told him that it was a serious trial [Bolsonaro’s], with compelling evidence. I told him about the gravity of what they tried to do, the plan to kill me, my vice president, and Minister Alexandre de Moraes. And that they had a right to defense that I did not have. He knows that once a king is dead, he is gone. Bolsonaro is part of the past,” Lula said. “I told him that after three meetings with me, he will realize that Bolsonaro is practically nothing.”
Lula turned 80 this Monday, making him the oldest Brazilian head of state to date. Last week, he confirmed that he intends to run for a fourth presidential term in next year’s elections. During his participation at Sunday’s ASEAN Business Summit, the Brazilian President said that he hopes to live to the age of 120.
“I have a commitment to God that I ask to live to be 120 years old. It seems like a lot, but it’s not much in today’s world, because science explains that the person who will live to be 120 has already been born. So, I ask myself, why shouldn’t I live those 120 years?” Lula told the event’s participants.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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