Bolsonaro’s son lobbied for US tariffs against his own country

Bolsonaro’s son lobbied for US tariffs against his own country — and Trump delivered

By Bharat Dogra

In 2022, when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s intensely contested presidential election, there were widespread allegations that outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro was attempting to stage a coup to overturn the result and remain in power. Even more shocking, the alleged coup attempt reportedly included plans to poison the newly elected President Lula and to assassinate a senior judge.

The coup attempt failed, despite Bolsonaro’s supporters storming state institutions.

Now, as this coup plot is being investigated in Brazil, the Trump administration has imposed a 50% increase in tariffs on all imports from Brazil to the USA. Alarmingly, this move has been linked to the ongoing investigations into the serious charges against Bolsonaro — investigations his supporters claim amount to victimization and an attack on democratic norms.

Why should a country be discouraged from investigating such grave allegations — including an attempted coup and murder plots? Why would Trump express admiration and concern for the main accused in such a serious case? And why would he punish Brazil with much higher tariffs in apparent retaliation? Is this really how trade and tariff decisions are to be made under Trump?

The USA had also failed to help President Lula during his earlier tenure, when he faced false corruption charges — charges later thrown out by the courts. This history reveals a persistent bias in US policy: opposing a leftist president like Lula, while bending over backwards to shield someone accused of extremely serious crimes — even weaponizing tariffs against an entire nation as part of these efforts.

Worse still, one of Bolsonaro’s sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, has actively lobbied in the USA for such punitive actions against his own country. When President Trump announced the high tariffs in a letter to Lula, Eduardo Bolsonaro publicly celebrated, saying that the message he and his allies had been conveying about Brazil had received a positive response in Washington.

These lobbyists also pushed for US sanctions against the judge presiding over the coup attempt case. They succeeded, and sanctions were imposed on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

All of this is profoundly disturbing — a grim example of how international affairs are being conducted today, particularly by the Trump administration. The extent to which some members of Bolsonaro’s circle have acted against their own country has reportedly angered even some of his former allies.

As I have long argued, nations facing arbitrary tariffs and other harmful measures from the Trump administration need to unite in resistance. Yet here we have the opposite — political actors undermining their own nation from within. Such conduct should be widely condemned, and the call for unity against arbitrary impositions must be reasserted forcefully.

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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, Man Over Machine, and A Day in 2071

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