US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Brazil is a “bad commercial partner” and defended former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro (PL) of the process investigating an alleged coup attempt after the 2022 elections.
“Brazil has been a bad commercial partner in terms of tariffs-as you know, they charge us huge tariffs, much, much larger than the ones we charge, and basically we were not even charging anything,” said the Republican when asked about the tariffs applied to South American countries and their close relations with China at a press conference at the White House.
“They charge huge tariffs and have made everything very difficult to do. So now they are being charged 50% of tariffs, and they are not happy, but that’s how it works,” he said.
On July 9, Trump imposed 50% rates on Brazil after sending a letter directed to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT). In the document, the Republican criticized the commercial relationship considered unfair between countries, and the stance of the Supreme Court (STF) against the former Mandanitor.
About Bolsonaro, which currently meets house arrest by decision of STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the White House chief defended him again and praise him.
“Brazil has some very bad laws happening … when they take a president and they put him in prison or are trying to arrest him. I know this man and I will tell you-I’m good at evaluating people: I think he’s an honest man. I think what they did is one thing… This is really a political execution that are trying to do with Bolsonaro.”
Moraes said he would ignore sanctions
On July 30, after Moraes “and his allies” lost the American visa, the rapporteur minister of the case against Bolsonaro was the target of the magnitsky law by the US state department. It has been included in the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) list, the US Treasury body, accused of leading an “oppressive censorship campaign” and authorizing abusive arrests of congressional invasion on January 8, 2023.
Sanctions against the magistrate, according to the US Treasury Note, include blocking their goods in the United States, the ban on transactions with US citizens and companies, and the exclusion of the dollar -linked international banking system. In practice, the measure is considered a kind of “financial death penalty”.
Earlier this month, during the Supreme Court resumption session after the judiciary, Moraes said that he will continue with the same conduct of the processes regarding the alleged attempted coup and will ignore the sanctions imposed on him.
“The STF’s procedural rite will ignore the sanctions practiced. This rapporteur will ignore the sanctions that have been applied and continue working as it has been doing both in plenary and first class, always in a collegiate way, unlike lies, untruths and misinformation of social networks,” said under the support of the president, Luís Roberto Barroso, and the STF dean, Gilmar Mendes.
Processes against Bolsonaro
On August 4, Moraes imposed house arrest on Bolsonaro after considering that the former Mandanician failed precautionary measures that he had imposed, which included nightclub collection, use of electronic anklet and total ban on using social networks, in a process that found attempts to interference from foreign authorities in the Brazilian judiciary.
Moraes stated that the former president systematically burned these restrictions on producing content in demonstrations and events to be later published in the accounts of children and political supporters, maintaining the same pattern of conduct that motivated investigations.
Bolsonaro is also a defendant in the Supreme in the process that investigates the alleged attempted coup. The former president who ruled the country between 2019 and 2022 was already interrogated by Moraes in the Supreme Court and stated that he always acted “within the four lines” of the Constitution, stressed that coup d’état “is an abominable thing” and reiterated that the possibility of institutional break “was not even considered” in his government.
In this criminal action, besides Bolsonaro, they became defendants Alexandre Ramagem, Federal Deputy and former director of ABIN, Almir Garnier, former Navy Commander, Anderson Torres, former Justice Minister, Augusto Heleno, former Minister of Institutional Security Office, Mauro Cid, former Assistant of Bolsonaro Orders, Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, former Minister of Defense and Walter Walter and Walter Netto, former Minister of the Civil House.
Trump has already defended Bolsonaro on other occasions
This is not the first time the US president has left Bolsonaro’s defense. Last month, Trump had already stated, on more than one occasion, that Bolsonaro was innocent, a good negotiator and who was going to follow his case closely.
“Brazil is doing a terrible thing about treatment to former President Jair Bolsonaro. I have been watching, just like the world, as they did nothing but go after him, day after day, night after month, month after month, year!” Trump said on his social network, Truth Social, on July 7.
At the time, he pointed out that the “only judgment that should be happening is a trial by Brazil’s voters” and that Bolsonaro “is not guilty of anything except for fighting for the people.”
He also compared the “political persecution” that the former president has been suffering, with what he claims to have suffered before the US elections last year and repeatedly asked to “leave Bolsonaro alone!”
“His election has been very tight and now, he’s leading in the polls. This is nothing more, nothing less, than an attack on a political opponent – something I know a lot about! It happened to me, sometimes 10, and now our country is the ‘warmest’ in the world!”
