Trump comes to Bolsonaro's aid: President Donald Trump has, at times, claimed that his tariffs are due to other countries' unfair trade practices: "We are going to have 10 percent to 20 percent tariffs on foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years, we are going to charge them 10 percent to 20 percent to come in and take advantage of our country because that is what they have been doing," he said in August 2024. But he's also claimed that "large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits have led to the hollowing out of our manufacturing base," and that tariffs will revive that sector, returning loads of dignified middle-class jobs to America.
Consider another possibility that Trump's tariffs are not about either of the stated justifications—unfair trade practices or hollowed-out domestic manufacturing—but about a secret third thing: Seeking vengeance for his friends.
Yesterday's 50 percent tariff imposed on all Brazilian imports is a good example of this. Trump hasn't even hidden behind many of his usual excuses (though he did claim we have a trade deficit with Brazil, when really we have a surplus), but has more overtly claimed that the new front in the trade war is retribution for the "witch hunt" going on domestically in Brazil against his political ally, former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. "The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace," wrote Trump in his letter to current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
