On 9th of July 2025, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, sent a letter to the Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva communicating that the US will impose a 50% tariff over Brazilian imports starting August 1st. […]
Trump’s letter to Brazil reeked of interventionism. Unlike similar letters sent to other states’ informing them of higher tariff rates this week that followed a boiler-plate pattern, his motivations for imposing tariffs on Brazil forefronted two issues: putting an end to the prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, and halting judicial and legislative efforts aimed at ensuring social media companies, such as Trump’s “Truth Social” and Elon Musk’s “X/Twitter”, comply with Brazilian law. Needless to say these tariffs are not about redressing any sort of trade dispute — the point is to weaponize trade to accomplish unrelated policy goals.
The first paragraph of Trump’s letter already mentions Bolsonaro’s treatment by the Brazilian government, labelling it “an international disgrace”, and his trial a “Witch Hunt” (sic.), that should “end immediately”. Bolsonaro is currently facing criminal proceedings for orchestrating an attempted coup that involved plans to assassinate President Lula and other government officials on the 8th of January 2023. Läs artikel