Trump government human rights report does not spare criticism of opponents, but ‘take it light’ with allies

Under Trump, US Human Rights Report criticizes Moraes and Lula administration, while making harsh criticism of countries such as Brazil and South Africa, the Donald Trump government report dramatically softened the words of allied US presidents, such as El Salvador and Israel. In his awaited 2024 Human Rights Report, published on Tuesday (12), the US State Department also considered that there was an erosion of freedom of expression in Europe. ✅ Click here to follow the G1 international news channel on WhatsApp The tone of the document differs in various parts of editions published until last year by Joe Biden’s democratic government: any criticism of governments on curtailing LGBTQIA+people, frequent in recent editions, seems to have been widely omitted. Moreover, unlike Biden management, the Republican government referred to the Ukraine invasion of Russia as the “Russian-Ukraine War.” Donald Trump Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP Israel and El Salvador The section of this year’s Israel report (referring to 2024) much shorter than last year’s edition (referring to 2023) and contained any mention of the serious humanitarian crisis or the number of dead in Gaza. About 61,000 people died, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, linked to Hamas, as a result of Israeli military operations in response to an attack by the terrorist group in October 2023. The number is considered reliable by the UN and humanitarian organizations. The report was postponed for months, as those nominated by Trump drastically altered a previous state department drafts to align him with the values of Trumpist doctrine “America in the first place” (Maga), according to government authorities who spoke on condition of anonymity to Reuters. “There were no reliable reports of significant abuses of human rights,” said the 2024 report about El Salvador, in a clear contrast to the 2023 report, which talked about “significant human rights issues” and listed them as reliable reports of illegal or arbitrary murders, torture and severe and life -threatening conditions. Buildings destroyed during Israeli land and air operations in the north of the Gaza Strip, seen from southern Israel, Friday, August 8, 2025. Leo Correa/AP The bilateral ties of Washington with El Salvador have been strengthened since Trump took office, with the government deporting people to El Salvador with the help of President Nayib Bukele, whose country is receiving $ 6 million from the USA to Shelter migrants in a maximum safety megaprision. El Salvador Minister of Justice and Public Security, Hector Villatoro, with US internal security secretary Kristi Noem during a visit by the Terrorist Confinement Center Alex Brandon/Pool via Reuters critical political motivations said the report had political motivations. “The report demonstrates what happens when political agendas have priority about the facts,” said Josh Paul, former state department employee and director of the New Policy non-governmental organization. “The result is a very summarized product that reflects more Soviet advertising than a democratic system.” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the report was restructured to improve readability and was no longer an extensive list of “political demands and statements.” Bruce refused to answer specific questions about countries and did not explain why a list of human rights violations in El Salvador was removed. Demissions and Evaluation Changes The Trump government has distanced itself from the traditional promotion of democracy and human rights by the US, seeing it as interference in the matters of another country, even criticizing countries selectively, in line with its broader policy compared to a specific country. An example is Europe, where Trump’s authorities repeatedly spoke out about European politics to denounce what they consider to repression of right -wing leaders, including Romania, Germany and France, and accused European authorities to censor opinions as criticism of immigration. For decades, the State Department’s Human Rights Report, commissioned by Congress, has been used as a reference model for the defense of global rights. This year’s report was prepared after a large reformulation of the department, which included the dismissal of hundreds of people, many of them from the agency’s human rights, human rights and work, which leads the report’s preparation. In April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote an opinion article stating that the department had become a platform for “leftist activists,” stating that the Trump government would reorient the department to focus on “western values.” In Brazil, where the Trump government conflicted with the government, the state department found that the situation of human rights worsened after the 2023 report did not find significant changes. This year’s report criticized the courts, stating that they took measures that undermine freedom of expression and disproportionately repress the freedom of expression of former President Jair Bolsonaro supporters, among others. Bolsonaro is being tried in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on charges of conspiring allies to violently reverse his electoral defeat of 2022 to leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Trump referred to the case as a “witch hunt” and considered him a foundation for a 50% tariff on Brazilian products. In South Africa, whose government the Trump government accused racial discrimination against Africanks, this year’s report said the human rights situation worsened significantly. He stated that “South Africa has taken a substantially worrying step toward land expropriation over Africanks and new abuses against racial minorities in the country.” In the report of last year, the State Department did not find significant changes in the situation of human rights in South Africa. Trump, earlier this year, issued an executive order that asked the US to resent Africaners, describing them as victims of “violence against owners of racially disadvantaged,” allegations that echoed allegations of the far right, but were contested by the government of Africa do South.

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