If Donald Trump had done in Brazil what he did in the United States, he would be arrested. This is a statement already made by President Lula (PT). On the other hand, the US President has also stated that Brazil goes very badly-and assigns the blame, especially to the government led by Lula.
Despite this history of mutual criticism, now both Lula and Trump claim that. But what does that mean exactly? Where can this approach take? No one knows for sure.
The most benign interpretation of what is happening suggests that the rationality of business interests may have found welcome inside the White House – precisely where the hardest attacks departed from Brazil. Such attacks were even justified by, in which he accused Brazil of maintaining a political regime that pursues opponents, both internally and externally.
Will now ideological factors give way to traditional commercial interests, which are negotiable? Could Trump’s point of view – of course – could they avoid the application of more rates and sanctions, including against members of the Supreme Court (STF)? Again, no one knows for sure.
The US government machine was programmed to act rigorously in relation to Brazil. This is through the Treasury Department, which applies the magnitsky law; from the office of the Commerce Representative, which investigates Brazil to justify the imposition of tariffs; and the State Department, which has already suspended visas and included Brazil in a kind of “evil axis” in Latin America.
Will this all change? It is not known. And this is precisely the big problem of the “new normal” we live in: unpredictability. Maybe not even Trump himself knows for sure.
