President Trump is seeking to intervene in a political fight roiling Brazil, demanding the country drop its prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro or face a 50 percent tariff on imports to the U.S.
“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 in a letter to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “This Trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”
Trump cited several other reasons for imposing the tariff, including rulings from the country’s Supreme Court on American social media companies and what he claimed was a trade deficit with Brazil. The U.S. in fact has a trade surplus with Brazil.
But Trump’s particular focus on Bolsonaro, who is facing criminal charges over an alleged coup following claims of a stolen election, is a particularly pointed step in a months-long series of tariff threats that have sought to twist the arms of foreign countries.
Bolsonaro served as Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2022 until he lost to Lula in the presidential election. After he questioned the veracity of the results, thousands of his supporters stormed the country’s Supreme Court, Congress and presidential headquarters.
Prosecutors called it an attempted coup, and Bolsonaro is now on trial facing criminal charges.
Here are five things to know about Trump’s latest tariff threat.
Lula pushes back
Lula has vowed to retaliate if the U.S. goes ahead with the tariff, which Trump said will start Aug. 1. He issued a forceful statement Wednesday night defending the independence of Brazil’s judiciary.
“Brazil is a sovereign nation with independent institutions and will not accept any form of tutelage,” Lula wrote on social media.
“The judicial proceedings against those responsible for planning the coup d’état fall exclusively under the jurisdiction of Brazil’s Judicial Branch and, as such, are not subject to any interference or threats that could compromise the independence of national institutions,” he continued.
Lula has no power to shape Brazil’s Supreme Court proceedings against Bolsonaro. Staring down the possibility of tariffs, he has prepared a task force to analyze possible reciprocal levies against the U.S., Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Several people close to the Brazilian president also said that he could use a fight with Trump to bolster his sagging approval rating ahead of the 2026 presidential election, the outlet reported.
U.S. is Brazil’s No. 2 export partner
The U.S. runs a trade surplus with Brazil, meaning it exports more goods than it imports. Brazil’s biggest export partner is China, not the U.S., which comes in at number two.
Brazil, however, is a significant supplier of coffee for the U.S., accounting for about $2.4 billion — about a quarter of America’s total coffee imports — between May 2024 and April 2025.
Coffee prices surged on Thursday after Trump’s tariff announcement. Combined with additional tariffs on Vietnam, another top coffee producer, some industry watchers warn that coffee prices could rise for American consumers.
Brazil is also among the countries impacted by Trump tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Trump, Bolsonaro bromance persists
Trump and Bolsonaro have enjoyed a warm relationship, especially when the two men overlapped in office. Bolsonaro has been nicknamed “Trump of the Tropics,” and the two men effectively backed each other’s bids for re-election after their first terms — and when they lost, called into question the validity of their respective results.
Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo also has close ties to several Trump advisers, including MAGA strategist Steve Bannon and Donald Trump Jr, Time reported.
Bolsonaro even decamped to Florida after his supporters stormed Brazilian government buildings in an attempt to restore him to power. He largely kept a low profile, posting on TikTok and attending a smattering of events.
Trump came to Bolsonaro’s defense earlier this week, comparing the former Brazilian president’s legal challenges to his own stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
“LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday.
Tariff threats to twist arms
Trump’s announcement is the latest in several attempts to wield the threat of a tariff with the goal of forcing a domestic policy change unrelated to trade.
In January, Trump threatened tariffs and visa restrictions on Colombia after President Gustavo Petro’s decision to reject two Colombia-bound airplanes carrying deportees from the U.S. Colombia eventually agreed to accept deportation flights as Trump backed down from his tariff posture.
Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Mexico and Canada in February also asked the two countries to crack down on illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl and other drugs across both the northern and southern border, although the vast majority of the drug trade comes from the south.
Other more ambitious trade policies, including his “Liberation Day” tariffs, remain in limbo. After the White House promised “90 deals in 90 days” to implement a worldwide tariff scheme, Trump’s administration has punted on issuing firm plans until at least August.
Levy comes amid domestic legal challenges
In ordering many of his tariffs, Trump has relied on a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which allows the president to regulate a broad array of economic matters following a declaration of a national emergency. The administration has argued that longstanding American trade deficits qualify as such.
A federal court in May struck down the tariffs based on that justification, but they have been allowed to remain in effect as the administration pursues an appeal. The Supreme Court rebuffed an effort to fast-track the case in June.
Nearly 200 Democratic lawmakers signed onto a brief supporting the lawsuit after Trump hit Brazil with the tariffs, arguing that the IEEPA does not give Trump any power to issue the levies.
