President Trump is pictured at the Salute to America Celebration at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines on July 3. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
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Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump broke from his tariff letter format to tell the president of Brazil that he plans to put a 50% tariff on “any and all Brazilian products sent into the United States” starting on Aug. 1.
Trump posted the letter to social media Wednesday afternoon, his 22nd such letter this week. However, this letter departed markedly from the others Trump has posted. All of the other letters were similar, telling countries that the new tariffs were intended to rectify trade imbalances with the U.S.
The letter to Brazil, however, was about Brazilian politics. Trump wrote that the Brazilian tariffs are needed in part “to rectify the grave injustices of the current regime,” and in particular what Trump called a “Witch Hunt” against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
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Bolsonaro is currently on trial for allegations that he and allies planned a coup in an attempt to stay in power after the far-right president lost in a reelection bid against the leftist Lula da Silva in 2022.
Trump has long praised Bolsonaro, and he continued to do so in his letter.
Trump wrote that he “knew and dealt with former President Jair Bolsonaro, and respected him greatly,” and said the way the former leader has been treated in Brazil “is an international disgrace.”
Wednesday’s tariff letter follows an announcement Trump made earlier this week that members of the BRICS alliance, including Brazil, would be subject to an additional 10% tariff. It was unclear whether that tariff rate would be applied in addition to the 50% rate Trump is proposing.
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Brazil hosted a summit of BRICS countries earlier this week, including the original BRICS members – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – plus new members including Egypt and Indonesia.
At that summit, in response to Trump’s BRICS tariff threat, da Silva fired back at Trump.
“We don’t want an emperor, we are sovereign countries,” Lula said in a speech. “It’s not right for a president of a country the size of the United States to threaten the world online.”
The tariff letters are the result of months of watching and waiting as Trump decided what to do with the global tariffs he announced on April 2. That day, he announced tariffs on nearly every country, with rates ranging from 10 to 50%.
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After investors panicked and stock markets plummeted, Trump walked back his tariffs, putting in place what he called a 90-day “pause” until July 9, during which all of those tariffs would be held at 10%.
Trump had said he would make tariff deals with countries by July 9, but thus far, only two have been announced. Trump this week bumped out the deadline to Aug. 1. Instead of announcing additional deals, he has started posting these letters.
The 50% proposed tariff on Wednesday is a massive jump from the 10% tariff Trump announced for Brazil on April 2. It is also seemingly not intended to correct a trade deficit — in 2024, the U.S. had a trade surplus with Brazil.
