Allies of the president (PT) assess that the PT’s visit to the president of the , , should isolate Bolsonarism, a political group that seeks to maintain proximity to the American. Members of the right, in turn, minimize this Thursday (7).
The assessment of PT members is that Lula, despite making recurring criticisms of Trump, managed to project himself as a statesman and reiterate the discourse of national sovereignty in the face of the USA.
The Minister of the Secretariat for Institutional Relations, José Guimarães (PT), said on social media that Lula, with his visit to Washington, “reaffirmed Brazil’s sovereign and respected role on the international stage.”
“Brazil has once again become a protagonist in major international decisions,” he wrote, citing that Lula was received “with a red carpet and state honors” by Trump.
The federal deputy (PT-SP), former minister of Agrarian Development, said that the meeting between the Brazilian and the American should reverberate in national politics. “The Bolsonaro family has always worked to have a monopoly on the relationship with the President of the United States, and for the second time this meeting [de Lula e Trump] It was a success,” he declared.
The former deputy (-SP) lives in the United States and tries to pit the local government against the Lula administration. Eduardo is the son of the former president (PL) and brother of the senator (PL-RJ), pre-candidate for president of the Republic.
“Last week Flávio Bolsonaro, after the dosimetry vote, predicted the ‘end of the government’. This week he rushed to the USA to try to plot against Brazil and the agenda of presidents Lula and Trump. He was isolated, without speech and left this process even smaller”, says Éden Valadares, PT’s communications secretary.
Lula seeks to position himself in this year’s electoral campaign with an agenda of national sovereignty and spoke publicly about this shortly after the conversation with the American. According to his report, the meeting was of equals.
Before the meeting, it was expected that Lula and Trump would give a statement to the press after the conversation at the headquarters of the American government. However, at the last minute, the plan was modified and only Lula and Brazilian ministers spoke to journalists at the Brazilian embassy in the USA.
Trump spoke via TruthSocial, in which he classified Lula as a “dynamic leader” and said that the meeting went “very well”. For members of the opposition, the American’s statements were dry and without the same chemistry as in face-to-face meetings.
Still for these interlocutors, the transfer of the interview location without Trump’s presence would be an indication that the meeting would not have been as good as expressed by Lula and his ministers.
Although Lula and Trump have addressed the fight against organized crime, members of the opposition interviewed by the report say that they should explore in the campaign the speech that the PT member went to the USA to .
Influencer Paulo Figueiredo, who was denounced by the Public Ministry in 2025 because of his actions in the United States due to sanctions against Brazil, mocked the request that Lula says he made to Trump, in a joking tone, to revoke the suspension of visas of Brazilian authorities, decided last year.
“Huh… I thought no one cared and that the canceled visa didn’t matter. But does it matter if the president of Brazil comes and asks the American?”
Before the meeting, Bolsonaro supporters sent news and published news on social media in which Lula criticized Trump in an attempt to undermine the meeting. After the conversation between the presidents, however, Flávio Bolsonaro himself and some of his main allies avoided commenting on the topic publicly.
After the meeting, Lula stated that he had dealt with topics considered taboo and proposed the creation of an international group, involving Latin American countries and, possibly, other nations.
The PT member stated that the meeting marked “an important step” to strengthen the historic relationship between the two countries and defend multilateralism in the face of global trade tensions. “I leave here with the idea that we have taken an important step in consolidating the historic democratic relationship that Brazil has with the USA,” he said.
The leaders met at 12:21 pm (Brasília). The schedule called for a start at 12pm and, afterwards, there was a period reserved for the leaders to speak to the press, followed by lunch.
The president was accompanied on the trip by five ministers: (Foreign Affairs), Wellington César Lima e Silva (Justice), (Finance), Márcio Elias Rosa (Industry and Commerce) and (Mines and Energy). The director of , Andrei Rodrigues, also participated in the delegation, but was not present at the Oval Office meeting.
This was the PT member’s sixth visit to the headquarters of the American government, the first being under Trump. In previous terms, Lula visited the White House in 2002 — before taking office —, 2003 and 2008, in meetings with then-president George Bush. Then, in 2009, and, already in his third term, the Brazilian was in 2023.
