President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated, in an interview with The Washington Post, that his personal relationship with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, can help attract American investment to the country, avoid more tariffs and sanctions, and guarantee respect for Brazilian democracy.
“If I can make Trump laugh, I can achieve other things too,” Lula told the newspaper. “You can’t just give up,” he added. The Brazilian president met with the American on the 7th, at the White House.
In the interview, Lula also spoke about the conflict between the United States and Iran, and reaffirmed his position. “Trump knows that I am against war with Iran, I disagree with his intervention in Venezuela and I condemn the genocide that is happening in Palestine,” he said. However, he considered that political differences with the American do not interfere with the relationship with him as head of state. “What I want is for him to treat Brazil with respect, understanding that I am the democratically elected president here.”
Lula said he gave Trump a copy of the 2010 nuclear deal that Brazil and Türkiye negotiated with Iran, a document that was rejected by the United States and the European Union. Trump said he would read the document, according to Lula, and the Brazilian offered to help facilitate dialogue, but they did not discuss additional steps. Lula’s intention, according to the interview, was to show Trump that “it is not true that Iran is trying to build an atomic bomb again”.
The Brazilian president also said that he is not trying to create a division between Trump and Bolsonaro, but sees closer relations with the Republican as a kind of force to neutralize the Bolsonaro family’s actions on the country abroad. The interview recalls that Eduardo Bolsonaro, second son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, moved to the United States last year to convince Trump that his father was being persecuted.
“I would never ask Trump to not like Bolsonaro. That’s his problem,” said Lula. “I don’t need to make any effort for him to know that I’m better than Bolsonaro. He already knows that.”
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