Open Society Council Chairman Alex Soros said on Wednesday that the tariffs and sanctions imposed against Brazil by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, are an attempt to interference in the Brazilian political regime in favor of former President Jair Bolsonaro and to harm to the current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“In the case of Brazil, it is clearly an attempt to change the regime against Lula and in favor of Bolsonaro. It is clear in the letter that was sent, it is clear in policies, if they can be called policy,” Soros said in a lecture during the seminar “Globalization, Development and Democracy” at BNDES headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, carried out by the bank in partnership with the Open Society Foundations.
For Alex Soros -who is the son of the billionaire and philanthropist investor George Soros -Trump sees the imposition of tariffs as an instrument of power, but Washington would already be turning back, both because Bolsonaro is ineligible and because research tends to show disadvantages of his measures.
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“Americans love coffee and want to keep having their coffee,” he recalled. “Since Trump was elected, there was only one election in which he or Vance (Jd Vance, vice president of the United States) tried to interfere and elected a candidate, it was in Poland. If you look at the world, it’s much worse to be Trump’s friend than his enemy. It’s much better to be attacked by him for political reasons than to be loved by him,” he added.
The US investor said Trump has been using tariffs as a dispute tool throughout the Western hemisphere, not just against Brazil. Soros commented on having already referred to Trump as a bullied person, a practice that has had negative political effects, such as the increase in the feeling of patriotism among the population of target countries.
“I said in the context of the United States, and I think it applies to the whole world. Trump just respects people who are more powerful or richer than him. It’s a fascination that he has with states like Saudi Arabia or catar,” he said. “You can’t allow those who bullying to master you. It’s important to fight it and hold your position ahead.”
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Regarding the issue of climate emergency, Soros found that the absence of the United States, the largest emitter of greenhouse gas, in COP30 “is obviously a question,” but the conference on climate change is an opportunity for Brazil to display accomplishments at a time when humanity “is losing this war.” According to him, in the face of the lack of prospects for future achievements in life, climate emergency becomes a “secondary issue for people.”
“I think we don’t think enough about what people are willing to sacrifice to combat climate change, or it’s so distant in form that it’s not something emergency. So there’s a paralysis,” he concluded.
