U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to impose a 50 percent tariff on Brazil — not because of a trade deficit, but because he believes that far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is being treated unfairly by Brazil’s judicial system. Bolsonaro, who once complained that Brazil’s military dictatorship should have killed more people instead of merely torturing them, is on trial for trying to stay in power despite being voted out of office in the country’s last presidential election.
Meanwhile, Trump is also claiming that former French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen (leader of the far-right National Lobby Party, formerly the National Front) is being persecuted. Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement in France.
In a biting article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on July 14, journalist Will Saletan warns that Trump has a “disturbing” pattern of defending “autocrats,” extremists and authoritarians.
READ MORE: There’s far more to Trump and Epstein’s relationship: Trump biographer
“Donald Trump says his foreign policy puts America first,” Saletan explains. “But as he meddles in other countries, pressuring their courts to go easy on authoritarian felons and defendants, a very different pattern is emerging: Trump is fundamentally a criminal, and his foreign policy is about aiding his fellow criminals. Trump has long defended Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president who faces trial in that country for doing what Trump did in the United States: attempting a coup to stay in power after losing an election.”
Saletan laments that Trump isn’t proposing a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods “on behalf of American companies or workers,” but rather, “on behalf of a foreign defendant with whom Trump personally identified.”
“On Truth Social,” Saletan observes, “Trump condemned Bolsonaro’s prosecution as ‘an attack on a Political Opponent — Something I know much about! It happened to me, times 10.’ The letter to Brazil — essentially dragging the United States into a trade war to subvert the rule of law — is the latest in a long string of moves by the American president to aid Trump-like politicians facing criminal charges or convictions in other countries…. Trump doesn’t just work to protect autocrats from justice in their own countries. He also defends them against justice in the United States.”
Saletan adds, “In 2018, a CIA assessment, backed by incriminating evidence, concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist and U.S. resident…. Trump has also defended Vladimir Putin, shifting blame from the Russian dictator to America.”
READ MORE: ‘Chaos’: Red‐state governor sounds the alarm over Trump’s agenda
Will Saletan’s full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.