The White House hit Brazil on Wednesday with a 50 percent tariff and sanctions on a justice overseeing investigations into former President Jair Bolsonaro.
In an interview with Jack Nicas of The New York Times, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rejected President Trump’s demands for Brazil. Here’s how the United States and Brazil reached this point.
Faced with threats of 50 percent tariffs and demands to end a criminal case, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he wouldn’t take orders from President Trump.
Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered Jair Bolsonaro, the former president, to stay home most hours, defying President Trump’s demands that charges against him be dropped.
Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, outside the Secretariat of Penitentiary Administration on Friday. Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered him to stay away from foreign embassies because it fears he could flee justice.
Right-wing Brazilians wanted sanctions against the judge prosecuting Brazil’s former president. President Trump opted for something far bigger — tariffs.
President Trump said the new 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian imports would take effect on Aug. 1, just before Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, is to stand trial.
Then-President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil with President Trump during a visit to the White House in 2019. In Mr. Trump’s first term, few world leaders were a more reliable ally than Mr. Bolsonaro.
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