By Josh Bork
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump picked out Brazil on Wednesday with a 50% import tax to treat former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump shunned standard form letters with Brazil, particularly linking his tariffs to the Bolsonaro trial. Trump described Bolsonaro as a friend and hosted a former Brazilian president at his Mar Lago resort in 2020 when both were in power.
“This trial should not be held,” Trump wrote in a letter posted to the Truth Society. “It’s a witch hunt that should be over soon!”
There’s a sense of relatives as Trump was indicted in 2023 for his efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election. The US President has spoken a tariff letter to Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in 2022.
Bolsonaro testified in June before the country’s Supreme Court on his assertion that he would remain in power after the 2022 election defeat. The judge will hear from 26 other defendants over the coming months. Legal analysts say a decision could be made as early as September. Bolsonaro has already been judged unqualified by national election authorities until 2030.
Brazil’s vice president, Gerald Alcumin, said there was “no reason” for the US to hike tariffs in South American countries.
“I think he’s been given misinformation,” he said. “President Lula was jailed for almost two years. No one questioned the judiciary. No one wonders what the country has done. This is a matter of our judicial department.”
For Trump, tariffs are personal.
Trump also opposed the Supreme Court fines of Brazilian social media companies, saying last year’s temporary bloc was equivalent to a “secret and illegal censorship order.” Trump said he is beginning an investigation under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act.
Among the companies, the Supreme Court’s fine was X, which was not specifically mentioned in Trump’s letter. X is owned by Elon Musk, a heavily Trump supporter in the 2024 election. The election has recently ended leading the Trump Department’s government efficiency, leading to a public feud over the US president’s deficit fraud budget plan. Trump also owns Truth Social, a social media company.
The Brazilian letter reminded me that politics and personal relationships with Trump are just as important as economic fundamentals. And while Trump says the high tariff rates he set are based on trade imbalances, it was unclear how his actions on Wednesday would help targeted countries deny America.
The tariffs that begin on August 1 will be a dramatic increase from the 10% rate Trump imposed in Brazil as part of the April 2nd release of “liberation date” . In addition to oil, Brazil sells orange juice, coffee, iron and steel to the US. The US operated a $6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year, according to the Census Bureau.
Trump initially announced a wide range of tariffs by declaring an economic emergency, claiming that under the 1977 law, the US is at risk due to persistent trade imbalances. However, in this particular case, this rationale is problematic. This is because Trump has linked his tariffs to the Bolsonaro trial, and the US exports them to Brazil rather than imports.
Trump has also targeted small trading partners
Trump also wrote to leaders from seven other countries on Wednesday. None of them – the Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Sri Lanka are not the major industrial rivals of the United States.
According to most economic analyses, tariffs exacerbate inflation pressures and reduce them from economic growth, but Trump used taxes as a way to assert US diplomacy and fiscal power in both his rivals and allies. His administration has pledged that taxes on imports reduce trade imbalances, offset some of the costs of the tax cuts that he signed into law on Friday, and that he will return factory work to the United States.
Trump spoke about trade as a diplomatic tool at a White House meeting with African leaders. He said he “seems to be the foundation” for him to resolve the conflict between India and Pakistan, Kosovo and Serbia.
“You guys are going to fight, we’re not going to trade,” Trump said. “And we seem to be very successful in doing that.”
On Monday, Trump placed a 35% tariff on Serbia. Serbia is one of the countries that used it as an example of how to nurture trade.
Trump said the tariff rates in his letters are based on “common sense” and trade imbalances. Trump suggested that he had not thought of punishing countries where the leader met him in his oval office, Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, and others, “these are my friends now.”
Despite these tariffs generally approaching what was announced on April 2, which rattled financial markets, he said the countries have not complained about the fees outlined in his letter. The S&P 500 Stock Index rose on Wednesday.
“We really didn’t have too many complaints because we’re so conservative as you say, we keep them in very few numbers,” Trump said.
Tariff uncertainty returns in Trump’s letter
Officials from the European Union, a major trading partner and source of anger over Trump’s trade, said Tuesday they did not expect to receive a letter from Trump, which lists tariff charges. The Republican president began the process of announcing tariff rates on Monday by storming two major US trading partners, Japan and South Korea, with a 25% import tax.
According to Trump’s letter on Wednesday, imports from Libya, Iraq, Algeria and Sri Lanka will be taxed at 30%, 25% from Moldova and Brunei, and imports from the Philippines will be taxed at 30% and 20%. Customs duties begin on August 1st.
The Census Bureau reported last year that the US operates a trade imbalance for Algeria’s $1.4 billion goods, Iraq’s $5.9 billion, Libya’s $900 million, Philippines’ $4.9 billion, Sri Lanka’s $2.6 billion, Brunei’s $111 million, and Moldova’s $85 million goods. Imbalances represent the difference between what the United States exports and imports to those countries.
To sum up, the trade imbalance with these seven countries is a fundamentally rounded mistake in the US economy with a gross domestic product of $30 trillion.
The letter was posted to the Truth Society after the expiration of the 90-day negotiation period with a baseline collection of 10%. Trump is giving the country time to negotiate with the August 1 deadline, but he insists that there is no extension of the country to receive the letter.
Customs letters are expressed positively in the style of Trump writing. He framed the tariffs as an invitation to “US participation in an extraordinary economy,” adding that trade imbalances are a “major threat” to the US economy and national security.
The president threatened additional tariffs on countries attempting to retaliate. He said that US officials chose to send letters because it was too complicated for them to negotiate with their country’s counterparts with new tariffs. It can take years to mediate a trade agreement.
Associated Press writer Mauricio Sabarese in Rio de Janeiro, David McHugh of Frankfurt, Germany, and Eileen NG of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
Original issue: July 9, 2025, 12:59pm EDT
