Trump's Brazilian Vendetta

Former Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro's political life has closely mirrored Donald Trump's. Now, Trump's efforts to resuce his Brazilian ally are straining relations between the United States and its largest Latin American ally.

^[1]

After a lengthy legal battle, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, was convicted on five charges, including attempting a coup, for his attempts to overturn his 2022 election loss.^[2] The Brazilian Federal Supreme Court, which was conducting the prosecution, found that Bolsonaro incited a mob to attack government buildings in Brasília in an attempt to coerce the military to swoop in and keep him in power.^[3] The plot, however, failed and Bolsonaro was tried and convicted for these efforts, gathering the attention of Bolsonaro’s friend and former counterpart, U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kindred Spirits in Victory and Loss

In many ways, Bolsonaro’s political trajectory has mirrored Trump’s. In his 2018 election victory, Bolsonaro, like Trump, emerged as an unlikely populist figurehead for conservatives and swept his way to the presidency.^[4] Still, like Trump in 2020 after a chaotic first term, Bolsonaro retained his popularity with his base and fought a vigorous reelection campaign, ultimately falling short in a narrow but clear result against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.^[5] In a similar way, Bolsonaro coordinated an extensive effort to discredit and overturn the results, resulting in mob violence against the capitol building.^[6]

However, this is where Trump and Bolsonaro’s paths diverge. Both men faced criminal charges for their efforts to overturn the democratic results that ousted them, but Trump escaped his legal troubles by securing another term in the White House. Bolsonaro, however, did not get that chance after his country’s electoral court barred him from running for office for eight years.^[7] Unable to regain sovereign immunity as a shield, Bolsonaro was later criminally charged and convicted by the Supreme Federal Court.^[8]

Trump’s Response

Trump has expressed his outrage at the Brazilian judiciary’s firm action against Bolsonaro and demanded in a social media post that prosecutors “LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!”^[9] In July 2025, Trump acted on his rhetoric when he enacted a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods, specifically.^[10] Adding on, the administration has targeted Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who led the prosecution of Bolsonaro and was sanctioned for what Trump and the Treasury Department described as “an unlawful witch hunt.”^[11]

Legality

Trump used his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) to bypass Congressional authorization and impose his tariffs on Brazilian goods.^[12] The justification for this imposition, however, is legally dubious. Ongoing litigation – namely Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, consolidated with V.O.S. Selections Inc. v. Trump – is addressing the legality of these tariffs, though the tariffs will remain in place until a review by the Supreme Court.^[13] Oral arguments for this case are set to begin November 5, 2025.^[14]

The administration has used the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act to target Justice Morae. The act allows the President to impose sanctions – including revocation of visas and blocking access to property in the United States – on individuals whom the President deems to engaging in human rights abuses or corruption.^[15] In addition, the Trump administration has imposed Magnitsky sanctions on Justice Moraes’s wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, and has left the door open to imposing sanctions on other Brazilian officials.^[16] While there are no ongoing legal challenges to this use of the Magnitsky Act, some human rights activists have decried the invocation of the act for political purposes.^[17]

Looking Forward

There is no clear path to resolving this diplomatic crisis. Lulu has repeatedly reaffirmed that Trump’s attempts to coerce the Brazilian government into granting immunity to Bolsonaro will not succeed.^[18]  Though there has been a slight thaw with a recent meeting between the two men offering new hope of an updated trade deal, both remain entrenched in their positions.^[19]

Ultimately, the matter of how to treat Bolsonaro is a matter for the Brazilian people. Even with all the tools of his office, Trump’s meddling has not succeeded in derailing the prosecution and there is no indication that he will in the future. If Trump continues to insist on immunity for Bolsonaro as a condition of a productive relationship with Brazil, he will find that this only imperils the United States’s relationship with its largest Latin American ally.

---

^[1] Via Getty Images.

^[2] See Vanessa Buschschlüter, Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years in Jail – What You Need to Know, BBC (Sep. 11, 2025) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4d409v2neo.

^[3] See id.

^[4] See Caio Quero, From Political Outsider to a President Like no Other: Bolsonaro’s Rise and Fall, BBC (Sep. 12, 2025) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yqendv7k5o.

^[5] See John Otis, Lula Beats Far-right President Bolsonaro to Win Brazil Election, NPR (Oct. 30, 2022 at 23:04 ET) https://www.npr.org/2022/10/30/1132561987/brazil-election-lula-da-silva.

^[6] See Buschschlüter, supra note 2.

^[7] See Tyler Bartlam, Patrick Jarenwattananon & Scott Detrow, Why Brazil was Able to Hold Their Former President Accountable in Election Case, NPR (Apr. 15, 2024, 19:04 ET) https://www.npr.org/2024/04/15/1244900546/why-brazil-was-able-to-hold-their-former-president-accountable-in-election-case.

^[8] See Jack Nicas, Brazil Keeps Telling Trump to Get Lost, N.Y.Times (Sep. 13, 2025) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/world/americas/brazil-trump-bolsonaro.html.

^[9] See Ian Aikman, Trump Accuses Brazil of ‘Witch Hunt’ Against Bolsonaro, BBC (July 7, 2025) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62gd8e1e5do.

^[10] Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Addresses Threats to the United States from the Government of Brazil, The White House (July 30, 2025) https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-addresses-threats-to-the-united-states-from-the-government-of-brazil/.

^[11] Ricardo Sennes and Valentina Sader, Where Does the US-Brazil Relationship Go After Bolsonaro’s Conviction?, Atlantic Council (Sep. 19, 2025) https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/where-does-the-us-brazil-relationship-go-after-bolsonaros-conviction.

^[12] See The White House, supra note 10.

^[13] See Bryce Engelland, What’s the Status of Tariff Litigation and Where May Things Fo From Here?, Thomson Reuters (Aug. 4, 2025) https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/corporates/tariff-litigation/.

^[14]See Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump (Tariffs), SCOTUSblog, https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/case-files/learning-resources-inc-v-trump/.

^[15] See Michael A. Weber, Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Sanctions: The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, Congress.gov (Aug. 7, 2025) https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF10576.

^[16] See Gram Slattery, US Hits Brazilian Judge’s Wife with Sanctions as Trump Showdown Deepens, Reuters (Sep. 22, 2025, 15:40 ET) https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-targets-wife-brazilian-supreme-court-justice-with-sanctions-2025-09-22/.

^[17] See Human Rights First Deplores Use of Global Magnitsky Sanctions to Support Impunity for Political Allies, Human Rights First (Jul. 31, 2025) https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/human-rights-first-deplores-use-of-global-magnitsky-sanctions-to-support-impunity-for-political-allies/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet.

^[18] Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Lula: Brazilian Democracy and Sovereignty Are Non-Negotiable, N.Y. Times (Sep. 14, 2025) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/opinion/lula-da-silva-brazil-trump-bolsonaro.html.

^[19] See Eileen Ng, Lula is Optimistic There Will Be a US-Brazil Trade Deal after Meeting with Trump in Malaysia, Associated Press (Oct. 27, 2025)  https://apnews.com/article/brazil-tariffs-asean-malaysia-trump-lula-37413f5b03fd5828af2faebf2de9cb2a.