Brian Winter Spoke to The Guardian about Trump's Strategy in Brazil
Brian Winter Spoke to The Guardian about Trump's Strategy in Brazil
"Some in Brazil joke that Lula’s most effective surrogate is Trump," said Americas Quarterly's editor in-chief to the outlet.
Donald Trump has enjoyed very few foreign policy victories since returning to power. From failed wars to failed peace processes, his second term in office has been marked by one costly blunder on the world stage after another. In Latin America, though, the US president has a different story to tell.
His administration’s national security strategy outlined how the US wanted to “restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere”. It was a brazen document, laying out how his government would interfere in the political life of countries it considered part of its sphere of influence, rewarding governments and movements that are “broadly aligned with our principles and strategy”. [...]
In July, as the election campaign was kicking into gear, Trump tried his tariff trick again, imposing a new 25% rate on some Brazilian goods. The state department then tried to dispatch two officials to Brazil to investigate “electoral integrity” – Brazil denied them visas, accusing the officials of coming to “meddle in Brazil’s elections”.
In the final weeks of the campaign, Lula has leaned into those accusations. A recent advert accused Flávio Bolsonaro of being “Trump’s candidate” and said the US president wants “to colonise Brazil, take our riches, steal our future and leave us in the dust”. What remains unclear is whether the White House’s strategy in Brazil is working. “Some in Brazil joke that Lula’s most effective surrogate is Trump,” Brian Winter, editor in chief of Americas Quarterly, told me...
