US-BRAZIL relations slid into crisis Monday after President Donald Trump criticized the high-profile coup trial of his right-wing ally, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump accused Brazilian authorities of carrying out a “WITCH HUNT” against the 70-year-old firebrand, warning they should “LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE.”
His comments drew a quick and sharp rebuke.
Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva set diplomatic niceties aside and hit back at Trump’s “interference,” adding that “no one is above the law.”
Bolsonaro is facing trial, accused of leading a “criminal organization” that plotted a coup to keep him in power after his 2022 election loss.
He faces up to 40 years in prison if found guilty. According to prosecutors, the alleged coup plot failed due to a lack of support from the military high command.
The case carries echoes of Trump’s prosecution over the January 6, 2021, attacks, when his supporters overran the US Congress to try to reverse his election loss.
Trump pleaded not guilty, and the case was abandoned when he was reelected president — giving him immunity from prosecution.
Bolsonaro has similarly protested his innocence, while trying to rally supporters with a series of protests that have further polarized Brazilian politics.
The cases have drawn the Trump and Bolsonaro families together, with the Brazilian ex-leader’s sons lobbying hard to have a Supreme Court judge hit with US sanctions and for Trump to weigh in.
That effort now appears to have succeeded, with unclear repercussions for relations between the largest economies in North and South America.
Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo praised Trump’s post and said it “would not be the only news coming from the United States in the near future.”
Trump addressed the case at length in a social media post and suggested Bolsonaro was the favorite in next year’s election — despite being banned from running because he spread misinformation about the voting system.
“I have watched, as has the World, as they have done nothing but come after him, day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year!” Trump said in the Truth Social post.
“It happened to me, times 10,” Trump said. “I have gotten to know Jair Bolsonaro, and he was a strong Leader, who truly loved his Country — Also, a very tough negotiator on TRADE,” Trump said.
Like Trump, Bolsonaro claims to be the victim of political persecution.
Bolsonaro senior thanked Trump for his support and his defense of “peace, justice and liberty” in a social media post.
Trump’s comments came as Lula hosted representatives from China, Russia, Iran, and other nations for a BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Leaders attending the summit criticized Trump’s tariffs and his bombing of Iran, drawing the US president’s ire and a threat of 10 percent additional tariffs on each BRICS-aligned country.
In a sign of how fraught US-Brazil ties are, Lula insisted BRICS members were independent and did not want an “emperor.”