Defiant Bolsonaro says he is the one to stop Lula, China and Trump tariffs

BRASILIA - With dark jeans pulled over an ankle monitor attached just hours earlier, Brazil’s right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro made clear on July 18 that the humiliation of court-ordered restraints would not curb his role in global politics.

In a defiant interview with Reuters at his party’s offices, raided at dawn in the latest crackdown from the Supreme Court, Bolsonaro cast himself as the man to renegotiate US tariffs, curb Chinese influence and beat back leftists in Brazil.

“They want to get me out of the political game next year,” he said, referring to a 2026 election in which President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is set to seek a fourth term.

“Without me in the race, Lula could beat anyone.”

Even after Brazil’s Supreme Court barred him on July 18 from contact with foreign officials, the ex-president insisted he wants to meet with US President Donald Trump, who slapped a 50 per cent tariff on Brazilian goods last week and demanded an end to Bolsonaro’s trial for trying to overturn the last election.

While some allies worry Mr Trump’s tactic is backfiring, tying Bolsonaro to the economic fallout and rallying support behind Mr Lula, the ex-president remained supportive of his ally in the White House.

“I would never give advice to Trump. Who am I? I respect him,” said Bolsonaro, seated at a table with two volumes within reach: a copy of the Brazilian constitution and a magazine with Trump on the cover. “His country is an example for us. We’re not an example for them.”

In court orders on July 18, based on allegations that Bolsonaro had courted Mr Trump’s intervention in legal matters, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes slapped the ex-president with a curfew and ankle monitor and banned him from using social media, approaching foreign embassies or dealing with foreign officials.

Bolsonaro called Mr Moraes a “dictator” and described the latest court orders as acts of “cowardice”.

“I feel supreme humiliation,” he said, when asked how it felt to wear the ankle monitor. “I am 70 years old, I was president of the republic for four years.”

Bolsonaro denied any plans to leave the country, but said he would meet with Mr Trump if he could get back his passport, which police seized in 2024. He also said he wanted to discuss Mr Trump’s tariff threat with the top US diplomat in Brazil.

Mr Trump has praised Bolsonaro, but told journalists this week that he is “not like a friend”.

When pressed for details of their relationship, the Brazilian former army captain began describing the advance of Chinese interests in Latin America.

“China is taking over Brazil. Many see that in Brazil I am the person who can stop China, as long as I have a warlike, nuclear nation behind me. Which one? Up north,” he said.

He said the Brics bloc of developing nations, formed originally by Brazil, Russia, India and China, had become a “brotherhood of dictatorships and war criminals”.

While hosting the Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro in July, Mr Lula compared Mr Trump to an unwanted “emperor,” drawing the ire of the US president, who threatened to raise tariffs on the group for its “anti-American policies”. REUTERS