President Donald Trump hosted Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the White House on Thursday, a highly anticipated bilateral meeting to which the press had no access.
Trump has previously hosted foreign leaders without making them available to the press, often at the request of the visiting dignitaries. But the original schedule for Lula’s visit included a press availability in the Oval Office.
Hours after the scheduled time, Brazilian reporters departed campus without an explanation from the White House regarding the change.
Trump himself, who has placed a new focus in his second term on Latin America, announced that the visit had concluded via a statement posted to Truth Social around 2:30 p.m.
“Just concluded my meeting with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the very dynamic President of Brazil. We discussed many topics, including Trade and, specifically, Tariffs,” he wrote. “The meeting went very well. Our Representatives are scheduled to get together to discuss certain key elements. Additional meetings will be scheduled over the coming months, as necessary.”
Brazil shares a border with Venezuela, and tensions between Washington, D.C., and Brasilia have flagged since Trump entered office last January, based on trade, Lula’s left-wing policies, and other matters.
Last year, Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs slapped a 50% duty on Brazilian exports to the United States. Trump eventually dropped some of those duties over concerns regarding American food costs before the Supreme Court ruled his entire “reciprocal” schedule was unconstitutional.
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The Trump administration has signaled in recent weeks that it plans to raise new Section 301 tariffs against Brazil when the president’s stop-gap 10% global tariffs expire this summer.
At the same time, Brazil has moved to fast-track a new “competition” bill that would increase costs on American tech companies operating within the country.
