Lula responds with reciprocal tariffs to Trump's tariff hike over Bolsonaro's trial.

As part of the latest offensive in his trade war, US President Donald Trump launched the most brutal attack yet on Brazil , threatening it with a universal 50% tariff. This is a full-blown punishment, a retaliation, the US president wrote in the letter announcing the tax on Wednesday, scheduled to take effect on August 1, for the treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro by the Brazilian justice system and for the alleged attacks on freedom of expression suffered by US social networks operating in Brazil.

The far-right leader faces trial for leading a coup plot after losing the 2022 elections. The US president maintains that the so-called Trump of the Tropics is the victim of a "witch hunt." Following the tariff strike, announced on the social media platform Truth, the real fell 2% to 5.56 reais per dollar, and the São Paulo Stock Exchange fell 1.3%.

The Republican also ordered the U.S. Trade Representative's office to investigate Brazil for unfair trade practices, which could lead to tougher tariff increases.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva responded in a statement after an emergency meeting with his core Cabinet. He announced that "any unilateral measure to increase tariffs will be addressed in light of the Brazilian Economic Reciprocity Law," passed in April.

He added several considerations to dismantle Trump's motivations for imposing the 50% tariff: "Brazil is a sovereign country with independent institutions that will not accept control by anyone"; the trial of "those who planned a coup d'état" falls under the jurisdiction of the courts; freedom of expression does not protect violent practices; and the information that the United States has a trade deficit with Brazil "is false"; the US surplus has been around $410 billion over the past 15 years. Brazil also recalled its ambassador in Washington for consultations.

The United States is Brazil's second-largest trading partner, after being surpassed by China . The bad news for Americans is that the tariff hike could impact their breakfasts and snacks because a third of the coffee and half of the orange juice their country imports comes from Brazil.

“The way Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a highly respected leader during his term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump wrote in his Wednesday letter. “This trial should not be underway. It is a witch hunt that must end IMMEDIATELY!” His attempt to interfere in an ongoing legal process in a foreign country by threatening to engage in trade disputes is unprecedented.

The letter is different from the other, almost identical, letters with new tariffs sent this week. The 50% tariff, the highest so far imposed on the countries threatened in this latest round, is five times the tariff Trump imposed on Brasilia on April 2.

Bolsonaro responded to the tariff increase with a biblical quote about just and wicked governments. The retired military officer is in the dock accused of five crimes that carry a total sentence of 43 years in prison. The plot included plans to assassinate Lula, his vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, and the man most hated by Bolsonaristas , Judge Alexandre de Moraes. The Supreme Court expects to issue a sentence by September. Furthermore, Bolsonaro is barred from office.

Trump also openly criticizes the rulings issued by Moraes against Bolsonaro supporters in his fight against disinformation and the Supreme Court's rulings holding big tech companies responsible for the content posted by users.

The American's letter continues: "Due in part to Brazil's insidious attacks on Americans' free elections and fundamental right to freedom of expression (as recently illustrated by Brazil's Supreme Court, which has issued hundreds of SECRET and ILLEGAL censorship orders to American social media platforms, threatening them with multi-million dollar fines and expulsion from the Brazilian market of those social media platforms) beginning August 1, 2025, we will apply a 50% tariff to Brazil on all Brazilian products entering the United States, in addition to all sectoral tariffs."

Hours before the 50% tariff increase, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry summoned the US Embassy's chargé d'affaires, Gabriel Escobar, to demand an explanation for Trump's diatribes against the Bolsonaro trial. After he announced the tariffs in a letter published in Truth, the Foreign Ministry contacted him again to verify the authenticity of the letter, which he confirmed, according to sources from the Brazilian Presidency. The Foreign Ministry returned it, arguing that it was "offensive" and contained "untrue information."

Before Brazil, 21 countries received the dreaded tariff hit by letter, including South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia. First came 14 on Monday. Seven letters were sent to Algeria, the Philippines, and Libya on Wednesday, the deadline for the 90-day deadline set by Trump to allow dozens of trading partners time to reach agreements with the United States. These letters included tariffs ranging from 20% to 40%.

In recent days, Trump has also attacked Brazil as part of the BRICS , the club of 11 countries in the Global South that includes China, India, Russia… Just as the BRICS leaders were holding a summit in Rio de Janeiro, the American threatened, via Truth, with “an ADDITIONAL 10% tariff on any country that aligns itself with the anti-American policies of the BRICS.”

Hours earlier, the bloc criticized Trump's tariff war , but was careful to do so in stiff diplomatic language and without mentioning him by name. The final statement said that "the proliferation of trade-restrictive measures, whether through indiscriminate tariff increases (…), threatens to further reduce world trade (…) and affect the prospects for global economic development."

Since Trump launched his tariff war against the rest of the world, Brazil had remained off the radar of his outbursts. The relationship between Presidents Lula and Trump is nonexistent. While the former urged voters to vote for Democrat Kamala Harris, the latter displayed his close relationship with the Bolsonaro clan before embracing the patriarch's victimhood rhetoric . The leaders of the two most populous countries in the Americas have never met or even held a bilateral conversation.

Faced with the threat to the BRICS, the Brazilian replied to his counterpart: "The world has changed. We don't want an emperor; we are sovereign countries." Lula added that if the US punished them with taxes, they would respond according to the principle of reciprocity. Trump himself mentions in his letter that, if that were to happen, "any figure they choose will be added to the 50%."

Brazil, Mercosur's main partner, is putting enormous effort into the South American bloc's negotiations with the European Union to quickly conclude the agreement that would create the world's largest trade zone. This will help diversify its foreign trade.

The US surplus made Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad appear relatively confident last Friday in an interview with this newspaper : “Brazil is running a deficit [in its trade relationship with the US]. They imposed the minimum, a 10% minimum, which is unfair. They are now negotiating on other fronts, but our turn will come, and we will present our arguments.”

As soon as Trump won the election, the Bolsonaro clan decided to invest heavily in Trump's support to loosen the judicial siege against the patriarch. One of the sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who speaks English and is the family's liaison with the international national-populist movement, left his congressional seat and settled in the United States. There, he lobbies for his father before the White House and Republican congressmen.

President Trump himself and his Administration had already taken steps to pressure the judge investigating the coup attack in Brasilia in January 2023, Alexandre de Moraes, the same judge who closed X for a month in 2024 and had a strong clash with magnate Elon Musk.

The day after Brazil's attorney general filed a lawsuit against Bolsonaro, Trump Media and the Rumble network filed a lawsuit in the United States against the Brazilian judge, accusing him of censorship. Weeks later, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Congress that he saw sanctions against the judge as "very possible." And this week, Steve Bannon warned in an interview with the Brazilian media outlet UOL that Trump would punish Judge Moraes—"I think that will happen in a matter of weeks." Perhaps it will happen, but in the meantime, Trump has launched a tariff challenge to save an ally in a foreign country.