Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. | AP
President Donald Trump knows how it feels when your coup doesn’t quite play out like you hoped it would. He was impeached, for a second time, after trying to defy the will of U.S. voters and overthrow constitutional democracy with his Jan. 6, 2021, MAGA assault on the Capitol.
That’s why he’s coming to the rescue of his fellow fascist, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who’s now standing trial and facing up to 40 years in prison for attempting—and also failing—to do the same thing in 2023 after losing his bid for re-election.
Trump announced Wednesday that he’s imposing a stunning 50% tariff on Brazilian goods entering the United States, at least partly out of solidarity with Bolsonaro but also for a range of reasons, including a trade deficit with Brazil (which doesn’t exist, but more on that later).
The White House declared the president’s intention to impose the higher taxes on U.S. importers of Brazilian products in another one of its carbon copy tariff letters. Unlike the poorly formatted, copy-and-paste form letters sent to other countries, though, Brazil got a customized threat that essentially amounts to a ransom note.
Like the previous letters, this one still featured the improper capitalization and bombastic sloppiness that define Trump’s communication style. “The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump wrote.
He continued: “This Trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”
Is what’s going on in Brazil really a “Witch Hunt,” though?
After alleging election fraud, Bolsonaro and his supporters staged a Jan. 6th-style insurrectionary attack on government buildings in Brasilia and tried to woo the military into joining the plot to block Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s return to office. Prosecutors allege there were even discussions of poisoning Lula.
Supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro hold a banner that reads in Portuguese ‘Military Intervention’ as they storm the National Congress building in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. | Eraldo Peres / AP
“This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent – Something I know much about! It happened to me, times 10,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account earlier this week. “LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!”
Like Bolsonaro, Trump too spent much of the last few years in courts facing indictments for trying to destroy democracy. The right-wing U.S. Supreme Court saved Trump’s skin, declaring presidents immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office. Trump escaped justice; Bolsonaro might not be so lucky.
But is kinship with another wannabe dictator all that’s motivating Trump in imposing his Brazil tariffs?
While personal obsessions and petty hang-ups are fixtures among the factors motivating many Trump administration policies, we can’t forget the bigger picture—U.S. imperialism’s new Cold War against China.
As China advances in the economic sectors that will define the future—artificial intelligence, EVs, robotics, rare earth minerals, renewable energy, and more—the U.S. ruling class of all political persuasions has become obsessed with blocking its development.
Trump’s trade war is all about repartitioning the world and pressuring countries to “side” with U.S. capitalism or face the consequences. For the faction of the capitalist class grouped around him, force is the preferred approach, and countries that have close trade relationships with China are discovering they have targets on their backs.
That’s the situation Brazil now finds itself in. As one of the founding members of the BRICS alliance of nations—the alternative to the U.S.-dominated G7 bloc—Brazil is in Trump’s crosshairs. With a leftist like Lula as president and Bolsonaro out of power and up against the wall, the danger for Brazil only grows.
Even before he launched the 50% tariff salvo against Brazil, Trump was already trumpeting his intention to punish countries that dare to trade with China. On Sunday, he wrote on Truth Social that the U.S. would impose an additional 10% penalty on “any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS.”
Leaders of the group met in Brazil this weekend and jointly declared their opposition to the “rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures,” an unmistakable reference to Trump and U.S. policy. They also pushed ahead with discussions of a cross-border payments system that will let them exchange goods in their own currencies rather than the U.S. dollar and further liberate their trade from U.S. control. They also collectively condemned Trump’s bombing of Iran, another BRICS member state.
From left, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and China’s Premier Li Qiang pose for a group photo at the 17th annual BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, July 6, 2025. | Silvia Izquierdo / AP
Hence, the reasons for Trump’s threats against the Lula government become much clearer. (The message India, South Africa, and other countries should take: Beware.)
But Brazil is not a tiny economy that his helplessly reliant on U.S. trade. Precisely because it is a member of BRICS and has maintained trade relations with China, Russia, and others, its arm cannot be so easily twisted.
Lula—who, unlike Bolsonaro, actually was the victim of a political witch hunt and spent time in prison as a result—responded, though without mentioning Trump or Bolsonaro by name.
“The defense of democracy in Brazil is a matter for Brazilians to deal with. We are a sovereign country. We do not accept interference or tutelage from anyone,” he wrote on X. “We have solid and independent institutions. No one is above the law. Especially those who threaten freedom and the rule of law.”
The Brazilian leader said his country would bring retaliatory tariffs of its own if Trump executes his threat.
Bolsonaro, predictably, is giddy that the despot in D.C. is trying to put a thumb on the scales of justice on his behalf. “I thank the illustrious President and friend. You went through something similar. You were relentlessly persecuted, but you won for the good of the United States and dozens of other truly democratic countries,” Bolsonaro declared.
His son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who’s a lawmaker in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, praised the U.S. president for trying to inflict damage on his country’s economy and people. “THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP – MAKE BRAZIL FREE AGAIN,” the younger Bolsonaro wrote on X.
If the tariffs do end up being imposed, what will be the results?
U.S. importers of Brazilian products were originally scheduled to face a 10% tax starting Aug. 1 as part of Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement earlier this spring. Brazil is one of the U.S.’s biggest trading partners, and Trump says his new tariff rate will “level the playing field.”
He lied in his letter, however, saying that the U.S. runs a trade deficit with Brazil. The truth is that the U.S. has actually had a surplus with Brazil for years, to the tune of $7.4 billion in 2024 alone. Turns out that the aircraft, mineral fuels, electrical equipment, nuclear reactors, and more that Brazil buys from the U.S. are worth more than the oil, iron, steel, coffee, and orange juice that U.S. companies import from there.
All of that means that these tariffs—just like the others Trump has imposed—will end up raising prices for U.S. consumers, encourage price-gouging and profiteering, put American jobs at risk, and push the world further toward division and confrontation.
Every time Trump says his trade war is about making America great again, the working people of this country can assume nothing he’s doing will be in their interests. And as for Brazil and the other BRICS countries, they’ve just been given even more incentive to tighten their bond and collectively shield themselves as much as possible from exposure to U.S. imperialism.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views represented here are those of the author.
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