According to President Trump, "Recent policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States."

The hostile actions taken by Brazil's current far-left government, according to President Trump, include violating the free expression rights of American citizens, violating human rights, and undermining "the interest the United States has in protecting its citizens and companies." 

In addition, President Trump argued that "Members of the Government of Brazil are also politically persecuting a former President of Brazil, which is contributing to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Brazil, to politically motivated intimidation in that country, and to human rights abuses."

Bolsanaro Prosecution

The extreme left government led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is prosecuting former president Bolsanaro on charges of attempting to lead a coup in 2022 after his loss in the counrtry's election that year. As part of the legal action against its former President, Brazil's Supreme Court recently imposed the politically inflammatory action of requiring Bolsanaro to wear an ankle monitor after agreeing with prosecutors that he is a flight risk.

Bolsanaro has denied all the allegations against him and called the measures against him a "supreme humiliation," according to the Associated Press.

While in office, Bolsanro was a Trump-like leader with immense popularity in Brazil and was one of the few top Brazilian politicians to have a strong, positive view of the United States.

Current Brazilian President Lula Da Salvia is an extremist leftist with ties to communist groups. According to Mike Gonzalez writing for the Heritage Foundation, at the 2023 Foro de SãoPaulo -- which Gonzalez described as "the world's largest and most impactful Marxist international organization" -- the current Brazilian president and chief antagonist of Bolsanaro openly bragged about being a proud communist.

His enemies, Lula said, "accuse us being communist, thinking that this will offend us. But that does not offend us… To call us communist or socialist will never offend us. Never. On the contrary, it makes us proud. The people know that we deserve to be called that."

Attacking Americans

The Lula regime does not just persecute high-profile former Brazilian presidents that it doesn't like, but it has made successful attempts to attack American citizens and large companies.

Elon Musk meets with President Donald Trump outside the Whitehouse.

In the most high-profile such case, Brazil's Supreme Court ordered Musk's X.com to censor a large number of user accounts. When X did not comply, radical Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes -- another notable opponent of Bolsanaro -- took action against Musk and his companies.

According to the Associated Press writing at the time, "Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX who took over Twitter in late 2022, accused de Moraes of suppressing free speech and violating Brazil’s constitution, and noted on X that users could seek to bypass any shutdown of the social media platform by using VPNs, or virtual private networks."

The AP continued: "Musk will be investigated for alleged intentional criminal instrumentalization of X as part of an investigation into a network of people known as digital militias who allegedly spread defamatory fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices, according to the text of the decision. The new investigation will look into whether Musk engaged in obstruction, criminal organization and incitement."

Musk eventually gave in to the pressure from Brazil.

Trump's Action Against Brazil

Addressing what he called a "national emergency" caused by the behavior of the Brazilian government against both Bolsanaro and American citizens and companies, President Trump signed an executive order imposing an additional 40 percent tariff on Brazilian goods, making the total tariff on imports from the country 50 percent.

"I find that the unprecedented actions taken by the Government of Brazil have violated the free expression rights of United States persons, interfered with the economy of the United States by coercing United States and United States-headquartered companies to censor United States persons for speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution on pain of extraordinary fines, criminal prosecution, asset freezes, or complete exclusion from the Brazilian market, subverted the interest of the United States in protecting its citizens and companies, undermined the rule of law in Brazil, and jeopardized the orderly development of Brazil’s political, administrative, and economic institutions," President Trump declared in his Executive Order. 

The President continued: "The policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil are repugnant to the moral and political values of democratic and free societies and conflict with the policy of the United States to promote democratic governments throughout the world, the principle of free expression and free and fair elections, the rule of law, and respect for human rights."