No One Is Defying Trump Like Brazil’s President
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil is outraged.
President Trump is trying to push around his nation of 200 million, dangling 50 percent tariffs as a threat, Mr. Lula said in an interview. And yet, he added, the U.S. president is ignoring his government’s offers to talk.
“Be sure that we are treating this with the utmost seriousness. But seriousness does not require subservience,” the Brazilian president said. “I treat everyone with great respect. But I want to be treated with respect.”
Mr. Trump has said that, starting on Friday, he plans to impose 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian goods, in large part because Brazilian authorities have charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with trying to hold on to power after losing the 2022 election.
Mr. Trump has called the case a “witch hunt” and wants it dropped. Mr. Lula said that it was not up for negotiation. “Maybe he doesn’t know that here in Brazil, the judiciary is independent,” he said.
In the interview, Mr. Lula said that the American president is infringing on Brazil’s sovereignty.
“At no point will Brazil negotiate as if it were a small country up against a big country,” he said. “We know the economic power of the United States, we recognize the military power of the United States, we recognize the technological size of the United States.”
“But that doesn’t make us afraid,” he added. “It makes us concerned.”
There is perhaps no world leader defying President Trump as strongly as Mr. Lula.
The president of Brazil — a leftist in his third term who is arguably this century’s most important Latin American statesman — has been hitting back at Mr. Trump in speeches across Brazil. His social media pages have suddenly become filled with references to Brazil’s sovereignty. And he has taken to wearing a hat that says “Brazil belongs to Brazilians.”
Trump will have a headache with Lula, the Brazilian president known as a “social fighter” due to his career as a union leader and politician, marked by his defense of workers’ rights and the fight against poverty and hunger. His humble origins and his participation in social movements have earned him this recognition, especially for his work during his presidency in Brazil.
