{"id":67127,"date":"2025-07-16T11:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T11:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/67127\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T11:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T11:50:10","slug":"a-family-of-traitors-trumps-brazil-tariffs-ultimatum-backfires-on-bolsonaro-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/67127\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A family of traitors\u2019: Trump\u2019s Brazil tariffs ultimatum backfires on Bolsonaro | Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silvana Marques was one of thousands of Brazilians who flocked to S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s most famous art museum one afternoon last week. But the 51-year-old teacher wasn\u2019t there to marvel over fog-filled London landscapes at Masp\u2019s new Monet retrospective. She had come to join a protest heaping scorn on Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Beneath the museum\u2019s brutalist hulk, Marques spotted a cardboard effigy of the US president and took a picture with her phone before the Trump dummy was set on fire. \u201cLaranj\u00e3o safado,\u201d which translates as big orange dirtbag, she wrote under her photo on Instagram. Nearby, demonstrators hoisted a red banner into the air which read: \u201cNice try Trump. But we\u2019re not afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rally was a response to Trump\u2019s decision last week to launch a politically motivated trade war against South America\u2019s biggest economy in an attempt to help his rightwing ally, the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro<\/a>, avoid jail.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro could face up to 43 years in prison if found guilty of masterminding a botched coup attempt after losing the 2022 presidential election. He is expected to be convicted and sentenced by the supreme court in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

On 9 July, Trump wrote to Brazil\u2019s leftwing president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/a>, to demand that the charges against Bolsonaro be dropped and announce he would impose 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports until they were. \u201c[This] is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!\u201d thundered Trump, long Bolsonaro\u2019s most important international backer.<\/p>\n

The US president apparently expected his intervention to improve the outlook for Bolsonaro, 70, who is already banned from running in next year\u2019s election. Bolsonaro\u2019s senator son, Fl\u00e1vio, urged Lula\u2019s administration to immediately cave in to Trump\u2019s ultimatum by offering his father an amnesty from prosecution. Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro likened Brazil\u2019s predicament to Japan\u2019s at the end of the second world war when the US\u2019s B-29 bombers blasted it into submission. \u201cIt\u2019s up to us to show the responsibility to avoid two atomic bombs landing on Brazil<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in March 2020. Photograph: Alan Santos\/Brazilian presidency\/EPA<\/p>\n

But a week after Trump\u2019s tariff announcement, the ploy seems to be backfiring badly. The move has reinvigorated Bolsonaro\u2019s leftwing rivals, given Lula a bounce in the polls and prompted a wave of public anger, largely focused on the Bolsonaro clan who have spent years portraying themselves as flag-loving nationalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cJair Bolsonaro couldn\u2019t care less about Brazil. He\u2019s a phoney patriot,\u201d the conservative Estado de S\u00e3o Paulo newspaper fumed on Tuesday<\/a>, excoriating the ex-president\u2019s apparent willingness to throw his country to the wolves if it meant saving his own skin.<\/p>\n

The newspaper\u2019s editorial board instructed conservatives to pick their side: \u201cBrazil\u2019s or Bolsonaro\u2019s. The two paths are diametrically opposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eliane Cantanh\u00eade, a columnist for the Estado de S\u00e3o Paulo, saw three motives behind Trump\u2019s \u201cindecent proposal\u201d. He hoped to boost far-right fellow travellers in South America; retaliate against Chinese involvement in the region after the recent Brics summit in Rio; and do a personal favour to Bolsonaro\u2019s son Eduardo, who has spent recent months lobbying officials in Washington after going into self-imposed exile in the US.<\/p>\n

But Cantanh\u00eade believed Trump\u2019s \u201cmegalomaniac\u201d move had boomeranged, handing Lula a golden opportunity to recover slumping public support by posing as a nationalist defender of Brazilian coffee producers, orange growers, cattle ranchers and plane manufacturers in the face of Bolsonaro\u2019s anti-patriotic and self-serving sellout to Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cLula was on the ropes,\u201d Cantanh\u00eade said, highlighting the leftist\u2019s falling ratings and growing doubts over his ability to win a fourth term next year. \u201cNow he\u2019s all smiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Beijing \u2013 Brazil\u2019s biggest trade partner \u2013 would also be celebrating as Washington further damaged its standing in the region. \u201cTrump is pushing the whole world into China\u2019s lap,\u201d Cantanh\u00eade said.<\/p>\n

Nicol\u00e1s Sald\u00edas, a Latin America analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, agreed Trump\u2019s pro-Bolsonaro intercession was a boon for Lula, who has taken to wearing a blue cap bearing the slogan \u201cBrazil belongs to the Brazilians\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lula wearing a \u2018Brazil belongs to the Brazilians\u2019 baseball cap. Photograph: Ricardo Stuckert\/Brazilian presidency\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Sald\u00edas, who is Uruguayan-Canadian, recalled how Trump\u2019s threats to annex Canada upended its recent election, helping Mark Carney\u2019s once flagging Liberal party keep power. He suspected Trump\u2019s trade war on Brazil would have a similar \u201crally around the flag\u201d impact for Lula \u2013 in the short-term, at least.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Lula this is going to be helpful,\u201d Sald\u00edas said, noting how his ratings had already risen and looked likely to rise further. \u201cThis changes the game because now he\u2019s going to be seen as the defender of Brazilian nationalism, a kind of progressive nationalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having spent months dreaming that Trump may help save their leader from prison, the Bolsonaros appear to recognise they have scored an own goal. One source close to the ex-president\u2019s family told Reuters: \u201cThe thrill of catching Trump\u2019s attention soon curdled as the Bolsonaros realised the crushing weight of the tariffs tied to their cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro insisted<\/a> he opposed the tariffs, which he blamed on Lula\u2019s \u201cprovocation\u201d of the US, and claimed he could fix at least part of the problem if given \u201cthe freedom to talk to Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n

Silvana Marques, the protesting teacher, was adamant the Brazilian authorities should not yield to \u201ccrazy\u201d Trump\u2019s demands and let Bolsonaro off the hook. \u201cWe cannot allow this to happen,\u201d she said, remembering the dire consequences of failing to prosecute the military leaders behind Brazil\u2019s 1964-85 dictatorship.<\/p>\n

Like many Brazilians, Marques took a dim view of how \u2013 as she saw it \u2013 the Bolsonaros had encouraged Trump to wage economic war against their own country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a family of traitors,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the Americans must be thinking: are we really going to have to pay 50% more for the things we import from Brazil just to defend this worn-out old horse?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Silvana Marques was one of thousands of Brazilians who flocked to S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s most famous art museum one…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":67128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-67127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114862766426870568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}