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Maddow Blog-5 major problems with Trump's radical tariff gambit toward Brazil
Is the president willing to punish U.S. consumers because he hopes to shield a former foreign leader from legal accountability? Actually, yes.
5 major problems with Trump’s radical tariff gambit toward Brazil www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
— @jimrissmiller.bsky.social 2025-07-10T20:56:09.726Z
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/5-major-problems-trumps-radical-tariff-gambit-brazil-bolsonaro-trial-rcna218070
When it comes to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, however, the incumbent American president is apparently not content to simply pound the table. As my MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown summarized:
To briefly recap, voters in Brazil overlooked Bolsonaro’s scandal-plagued record in 2018 and elected him president. Four years later, he narrowly lost his bid for a second term and allegedly plotted what was effectively a coup that would’ve allowed him to remain in power despite his election defeat.....
But unlike the French and Israeli examples, Trump is also using tariffs as part of a clumsy scheme to help his Brazilian pal, sending an unhinged and ridiculously written letter to the country’s actual president, scolding the foreign government, and connecting the case against Bolsonaro to U.S. trade policy.
What’s wrong with that? Quite a bit, actually.
1. Trump appears to have forgotten about the legal basis of his trade agenda: According to the White House, the president can unilaterally impose arbitrary tariffs on U.S. trade partners because he’s declared an economic emergency resulting from trade deficits. The trouble in this instance, however, is that the United States has a trade surplus with Brazil, adding a legally dubious twist to the Republican’s radical gambit.
2. This is a diplomatic fiasco of historic proportions: There is no precedent for a U.S. administration trying to leverage trade policy to derail a criminal case in a sovereign nation.
On the Netanyahu matter, a recent Axios report noted, “Trump’s comments in a post on his Truth Social account were an unprecedented intervention by a U.S. president in a legal proceeding in another democratic ally.” But that was just rhetoric; with Brazil, he’s imposing actual economic penalties.......
5. Trump is turning U.S. values on their head: There is some precedent for a U.S. administration using tariffs in pursuit of political goals, but those earlier cases, we were trying to lean on foreign governments to be more just, not less. Trump has the whole model backwards.
Hayes concluded, “[T]he decision to use tariffs as a cudgel to bring Brazil to heel for following its own laws marks a distinct shift in Trump’s willingness to engage in economic warfare for his own personal interests.”
If someone is prepared to offer a defense for such a move, I’m eager to hear it
President Donald Trump sent his Brazilian counterpart a stunning letter Wednesday, informing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that his country would face a new 50% tariff ‘due in part to ... the way Brazil has treated’ former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump political ally. Trump blamed the massive spike in tariffs partly on ‘Brazil’s insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans.’
To briefly recap, voters in Brazil overlooked Bolsonaro’s scandal-plagued record in 2018 and elected him president. Four years later, he narrowly lost his bid for a second term and allegedly plotted what was effectively a coup that would’ve allowed him to remain in power despite his election defeat.....
But unlike the French and Israeli examples, Trump is also using tariffs as part of a clumsy scheme to help his Brazilian pal, sending an unhinged and ridiculously written letter to the country’s actual president, scolding the foreign government, and connecting the case against Bolsonaro to U.S. trade policy.
What’s wrong with that? Quite a bit, actually.
1. Trump appears to have forgotten about the legal basis of his trade agenda: According to the White House, the president can unilaterally impose arbitrary tariffs on U.S. trade partners because he’s declared an economic emergency resulting from trade deficits. The trouble in this instance, however, is that the United States has a trade surplus with Brazil, adding a legally dubious twist to the Republican’s radical gambit.
2. This is a diplomatic fiasco of historic proportions: There is no precedent for a U.S. administration trying to leverage trade policy to derail a criminal case in a sovereign nation.
On the Netanyahu matter, a recent Axios report noted, “Trump’s comments in a post on his Truth Social account were an unprecedented intervention by a U.S. president in a legal proceeding in another democratic ally.” But that was just rhetoric; with Brazil, he’s imposing actual economic penalties.......
5. Trump is turning U.S. values on their head: There is some precedent for a U.S. administration using tariffs in pursuit of political goals, but those earlier cases, we were trying to lean on foreign governments to be more just, not less. Trump has the whole model backwards.
Hayes concluded, “[T]he decision to use tariffs as a cudgel to bring Brazil to heel for following its own laws marks a distinct shift in Trump’s willingness to engage in economic warfare for his own personal interests.”
If someone is prepared to offer a defense for such a move, I’m eager to hear it
These tariffs are not about trade but one dictator trying to protect another dictator
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