'A family of traitors' US tariff threat to Brazil backfires on Bolsonaro and sons

US tariff threat to Brazil backfires on Bolsonaro and sons

- Tom Phillips

Silvana Marques was one of thousands of Brazilians who flocked to São Paulo's most famous art museum one afternoon last week. But the 51-year-old teacher wasn't there to marvel over fog-filled London landscapes at Masp's new Monet retrospective. She had come to join a protest against Donald Trump.

Beneath the museum's brutalist hulk, Marques spotted a cardboard effigy of the US president and took a picture before it was set on fire. "Laranjão safado", which translates as "big orange dirtbag", she wrote under her photo on Instagram. Nearby, demonstrators raised a red banner that read: "Nice try, Trump. But we're not afraid."

The rally was a response to Trump's decision last week to launch a politically motivated trade war against South America's biggest economy in an attempt to help the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro avoid jail.

Bolsonaro could face up to 43 years in prison if found guilty of masterminding a botched coup attempt after losing the 2022 presidential election. The supreme court is expected to reach a verdict in the coming weeks.

On 9 July, Trump wrote to Brazil's leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to demand that the charges against Bolsonaro be dropped and said he would impose 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports until they were. "[This] is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!" thundered Trump, Bolsonaro's most important international backer.