The president of the United States, Donald Trumpreceives this Thursday at the White House his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The meeting is currently more important for the Brazilian president than for its host. The path to re-election in October has been considerably complicated for him. It is still an irony in the eyes of some analysts that Lula, who is very critical of Trump’s international policy, needs the unexpected help of the magnate whom he has described as “emperor” in hours of uncertainty regarding his candidacy. “A strange moment”said the newspaper State about the motivations for the trip.
Trump and Lula went through stormy moments that found a curious channel after crossing paths at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025. They met again on October 26, 2025 in Kuala Lumpurand at the same time they had a long telephone conversation that managed to mitigate some of the effects of Washington’s trade sanctions in retaliation for the trial against Jair Bolsonaro last year.
Prepared for a possible “surprise”
Although the atmosphere prior to the meeting at the highest level does not predict conflictive situations, Brazilian diplomacy admits that anything can happen behind closed doors. “One of the members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs interviewed by this column affirms that, being Donald Trump, one must always be prepared for a last-minute surprise during the conversation,” Mônica Bergamo, a columnist for the São Paulo newspaper, said the day before. Sheet. That same source is confident, however, that cordiality will prevail in the differences.
It is not a minor fact for Brazilian diplomacy that the Republican billionaire made a place on his agenda in the midst of the war against Iran. This issue will surely be raised by Lula, who, it was assured, will ask his interlocutor to put an end to the escalation that has been causing disruption in the global hydrocarbon market. The Venezuelan issue will not be foreign to the conversations. “I am against any country in the world meddling and exercising political interference,” said the veteran leader of the Workers’ Party, last April. The disaster in Gaza finds them in strongly opposed positions at the same time.
Moment of internal weakness
Lula arrives at the meeting politically weakened, after a series of defeats in Congress, one of them related to his veto of the reduction of the sentence of Jair Bolsonaroand in a situation of technical tie in the polls with the son of the former president, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
According to Oliver Stuenkel, professor of International Relations at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Lula will try to “strengthen personal relationship“with his American colleague to minimize the possible risk of US interference in the elections. Just as Trump supported Bolsonaro Sr. in the run-up to the trial that sentenced him to 27 years in prison, there is no shortage of Bolsonaro supporters eager for the tycoon to now do the same with his son.
A noticeable reduction in duty to Brazilian exports would mean a diplomatic victory and a political boost for Lula. But Trump surely wants something in return. Washington, according to the Brazilian press, even analyzed the possibility of declaring the First Capital Command (PCC) and Red Command gangs as terrorist organizations. The PT Government has no interest in moving in that direction and, if the issue were to arise, it will demand its own roadmap to defeat these groups related to the drug and weapons trafficking that have also been inserted into the legal economy through front men. “We can make great progress in controlling financial flows and investigating criminal networks.“said Vice President Geraldo Alckmin. The United States and Brazil signed an agreement weeks ago to fight against arms trafficking. and drugs. Now they share data.
There is another point of controversy. The US rejects the free PIX electronic payment system that governs Brazil. He considers it an unfair commercial practice. Interestingly, the PIX was launched during Bolsonaro’s administration. Six years later, the payment mechanism in the South American giant has been significantly modified. Millions of dollars circulate through that system, above and beyond credit cards.
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