Protesters have gathered on the streets of Brazil to denounce United States President Donald Trump for the steep tariffs he imposed on the country’s exports.
The demonstrations on Friday erupted in cities like Sao Paulo and Brasilia, as residents voiced their anger on the first day of Trump’s latest tariff campaign.
Brazil is slated to see some of the highest US tariffs in the world.
Last month, on July 9, Trump announced he planned to hike the import tax on Brazilian products to 50 percent, in response to a list of political complaints, chief among them the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
A far-right leader and former army captain who served as president from 2019 to 2023, Bolsonaro faces trial for allegedly attempting to orchestrate a coup d’etat against his successor, current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
A federal police investigation culminated in a 2024 report that suggested Bolsonaro and his allies sought to undermine the results of the 2022 election, which he narrowly lost to Lula.
Among the possibilities they reportedly considered was declaring a “state of siege” to suspend civil liberties and force the military to intervene. That, in turn, would pave the way for new elections.
Another idea that was allegedly floated was to poison Lula and shoot Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who had denounced Bolsonaro for spreading false information about the 2022 election process.
De Moraes ultimately oversaw the investigation into Bolsonaro’s alleged coup attempt, making him a prominent target for Bolsonaro’s supporters.
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Trump counts himself among them. In his July 9 letter announcing the tariffs, he drew a line from his tariff hike to Brazil’s treatment of Bolsonaro, alleging that the prosecution was politically motivated.
“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump wrote.
“This trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”
Trump also accused the Brazilian Supreme Court of censoring right-wing voices and launching “insidious attacks on Free Elections”. Trump himself has been accused of seeking to undermine the results of the US’s 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
To defend Bolsonaro, Trump has gone so far as to sanction de Moraes, freezing his US-based assets and revoking his visa.
But critics have accused Trump of seeking to interfere with Brazil’s judicial process. Some have described the tariff hike and the sanctions against de Moraes as a pressure campaign to force Brazilian prosecutors to drop the case against Bolsonaro.
On the streets of Sao Paulo on Friday, protesters burned a pair of effigies — one representing Trump, the other Bolsonaro, positioned together in an embrace. Placards waved, some featuring Trump with devil horns protruding from his forehead and cartoons of de Moraes flicking Trump his middle finger.
A banner, meanwhile, featured the slogan: “Sovereignty is not negotiable.” Brazilian flags abounded on signs and T-shirts.
De Moraes himself issued a statement, saying Trump’s sanctions would not interfere with his duties. “This rapporteur will ignore the sanctions applied to him and continue working as he has been doing.”