{"id":60912,"date":"2025-08-05T19:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/60912\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T19:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:47:11","slug":"us-brazil-relations-hit-low-as-trump-backs-bolsonaro-with-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/60912\/","title":{"rendered":"US-Brazil relations hit low as Trump backs Bolsonaro with sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAO PAULO (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> has made clear who his new Latin America priority is: former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro<\/a>, a personal and political ally.<\/p>\n

In doing so, he has damaged one of the Western hemisphere\u2019s most important and long-standing relationships, by levying 50% tariffs<\/a> that begin to take effect Wednesday on the largest Latin America economy, sanctioning its main justice<\/a> and bringing relations between the two countries<\/a> to the lowest point in decades.<\/p>\n

The White House has appeared to embrace a narrative pushed by Bolsonaro allies in the U.S., that the former Brazilian president\u2019s prosecution for attempting to overturn his 2022 election loss<\/a> is part of a \u201cdeliberate breakdown in the rule of law,\u201d with the government engaging in \u201cpolitically motivated intimidation\u201d and committing \u201chuman rights abuses,\u201d according to Trump\u2019s statement<\/a> announcing the tariffs.<\/p>\n

The message was clear earlier, when Trump described Bolsonaro\u2019s prosecution<\/a> by Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court as a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d<\/a> \u2014 using the same phrase he has employed for the numerous investigations<\/a> he has faced since his first term. Bolsonaro faces charges of orchestrating a coup attempt to stay in power after losing the 2022 election<\/a> to President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/a>. A conviction could come in the next few months.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has a long history of meddling with the affairs of Latin American governments, but Trump\u2019s latest moves are unprecedented, said Steven Levitsky<\/a>, a political scientist at Harvard University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a personalistic government that is adopting policies according to Trump\u2019s whims,\u201d Levitsky said. <\/p>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s sons, he noted, have close connections to Trump\u2019s inner circle. The argument has been bolstered by parallels<\/a> between Bolsonaro\u2019s prosecution and the attempted prosecution of Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss<\/a>, which ended when he won his second term last November.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been convinced Bolsonaro is a kindred spirit suffering a similar witch hunt,\u201d Levitsky said.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s institutions hold firm against political pressure<\/p>\n

After Bolsonaro\u2019s defeat in 2022, Trump and his supporters echoed his baseless election fraud claims<\/a>, treating him as a conservative icon and hosting him at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Steve Bannon<\/a>, the former Trump adviser, recently told Brazil\u2019s news website UOL that the U.S. would lift tariffs if Bolsonaro\u2019s prosecution were dropped.<\/p>\n

Meeting that demand, however, is impossible for several reasons.<\/p>\n

Brazilian officials have consistently emphasized that the judiciary is independent<\/a>. The executive branch, which manages foreign relations, has no control over Supreme Court justices, who in turn have stated they won\u2019t yield to political pressure.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the court ordered that Bolsonaro be placed under house arrest<\/a> for violating court orders by spreading messages on social media through his sons\u2019 accounts.<\/p>\n

Justice Alexandre de Moraes<\/a>, who oversees the case against Bolsonaro, was sanctioned under the U.S. Magnitsky Act<\/a>, which is supposed to target serious human rights offenders. De Moraes has argued that defendants were granted full due process and said he would ignore the sanctions and continue his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ask for Lula was undoable,\u201d said Bruna Santos<\/a> of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C., about dropping the charges against Bolsonaro. \u201cIn the long run, you are leaving a scar on the relationship between the two largest democracies in the hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magnitsky sanctions \u2018twist the law\u2019<\/p>\n

Three key factors explain the souring of U.S.-Brazil ties in recent months, said Oliver Stuenkel, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: growing alignment between the far-right in both countries; Brazil\u2019s refusal to cave to tariff threats; and the country\u2019s lack of lobbying in Washington.<\/p>\n

Lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro<\/a>, Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s third son, has been a central figure linking Brazil\u2019s far-right with Trump\u2019s MAGA movement. <\/p>\n

He took a leave from Brazil\u2019s Congress and moved to the U.S. in March, but he has long cultivated ties in Trump\u2019s orbit. Eduardo openly called for Magnitsky sanctions against de Moraes and publicly thanked Trump after the 50% tariffs were announced in early July.<\/p>\n

Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern<\/a>, author of the Magnitsky Act, which allows the U.S. to sanction individual foreign officials who violate human rights, called the administration\u2019s actions \u201chorrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey make things up to protect someone who says nice things about Donald Trump,\u201d McGovern told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s son helps connect far right in US and Brazil<\/p>\n

Eduardo Bolsonaro\u2019s international campaign began immediately after his father\u2019s 2022 loss. Just days after the elections, he met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As investigations against Bolsonaro and his allies deepened, the Brazilian far right<\/a> adopted a narrative of judicial persecution and censorship, an echo of Trump and his allies who have claimed the U.S. justice system was weaponized against him.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court and Electoral Court are among the world\u2019s strictest regulators of online discourse: they can order social media takedowns and arrests for spreading misinformation or other content it rules \u201canti-democratic.\u201d <\/p>\n

But until recently, few believed Eduardo\u2019s efforts to punish Brazil\u2019s justices would succeed.<\/p>\n

That began to change last year when billionaire Elon Musk<\/a> clashed with de Moraes over censorship on X and threatened to defy court orders by pulling its legal representative from Brazil. In response, de Moraes suspended the social media platform from operating in the country for a month and threatened operations of another Musk company, Starlink. In the end, Musk blinked.<\/p>\n

F\u00e1bio de S\u00e1 e Silva<\/a>, a professor of international and Brazilian studies at the University of Oklahoma, said Eduardo\u2019s influence became evident in May 2024, when he and other right-wing allies secured a hearing before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt revealed clear coordination between Bolsonaro supporters and sectors of the U.S. Republican Party,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a strategy to pressure Brazilian democracy from the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

A last-minute tariff push yields some wins<\/p>\n

Brazil has a diplomatic tradition of maintaining a low-key presence in Washington, Stuenkel said. That vacuum created an opportunity for Eduardo Bolsonaro to promote a distorted narrative about Brazil among Republicans and those closest to Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow Brazil is paying the price,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

After Trump announced sweeping tariffs in April, Brazil began negotiations. President Lula and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin \u2014 Brazil\u2019s lead trade negotiator \u2014 said they have held numerous meetings with U.S. trade officials since then.<\/p>\n

Lula and Trump have never spoken, and the Brazilian president has repeatedly said Washington ignored Brazil\u2019s efforts to negotiate ahead of the tariffs\u2019 implementation.<\/p>\n

Privately, diplomats say they felt the decisions were made inside the White House, within Trump\u2019s inner circle \u2014 a group they had no access to.<\/p>\n

A delegation of Brazilian senators traveled to Washington in the final week of July in a last-ditch effort to defuse tensions. The group, led by Senator Nelsinho Trad, met with business leaders with ties to Brazil and nine U.S. senators \u2014 only one of them Republican, Thom Tillis<\/a> of North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found views on Brazil were ideologically charged,\u201d Trad told The AP. \u201cBut we made an effort to present economic arguments.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the delegation was in Washington, Trump signed the order imposing the 50% tariff. But there was relief: not all Brazilian imports would be hit. Exemptions included civil aircraft and parts, aluminum, tin, wood pulp, energy products and fertilizers.<\/p>\n

Trad believes Brazil\u2019s outreach may have helped soften the final terms. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the path has to remain one of dialogue and reason so we can make progress on other fronts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAO PAULO (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump has made clear who his new Latin America priority is:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[19429,23,941,19426,45469,14271,2302,12,19425,1070,11,30486,793,12756,3138,962,3075,3073,2026,2561,45468,3140,2221,19424,3,45471,111,3776,18598,45470,6013,9287,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,800,965],"class_list":["post-60912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-alexandre-de-moraes","tag-america","tag-brazil","tag-brazil-government","tag-bruna-santos","tag-central-america","tag-courts","tag-donald-trump","tag-eduardo-bolsonaro","tag-elections","tag-elon-musk","tag-executive-orders","tag-general-news","tag-geraldo-alckmin","tag-government-and-politics","tag-government-policy","tag-human-rights","tag-indictments","tag-international-news","tag-jair-bolsonaro","tag-james-mcgovern","tag-latin-america","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-luiz-incio-lula-da-silva","tag-news","tag-oliver-stuenkel","tag-politics","tag-sanctions-and-embargoes","tag-south-america","tag-stephen-bannon","tag-supreme-court-of-the-united-states","tag-thom-tillis","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}