US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday, July 30, implementing an additional 40% tariff on Brazilian products, bringing the total trade duties to 50%, the White House announced. Trump had threatened Latin America’s largest economy with the move as punishment for what he has termed a “witch hunt” against his far-right ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The announcement saw Trump make good on a threat to wield American economic might to punish Brazil – and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes in particular – for what he has termed a “witch hunt” against former president Bolsonaro.
Unlike the tariffs Trump is slapping on economies around the world, the measures against Brazil have been framed in openly political terms, sweeping aside centuries-old trade ties and a surplus that Brasília put at $284 million last year. The moves dramatically increased the pressure on Moraes, who has emerged as one of the most powerful and polarizing people in Brazil – and a consistent thorn in the far-right’s side, after clashing repeatedly with Bolsonaro and others over disinformation.
The Brazilian government’s “politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of (Bolsonaro) and thousands of his supporters are serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil,” the White House said in a fact sheet announcing the tariffs. It also cited Brazil’s “unusual and extraordinary policies and actions harming US companies, the free speech rights of US persons, US foreign policy, and the US economy,” and singled out Moraes by name.
It did not state what date the tariffs would come into effect, but Trump had previously cited August 1. The new duties were announced shortly after the US Treasury slapped sanctions on Moraes, which followed a similar move by the State Department earlier this month. The sanctions provoked a swift and furious response from Brasília, where Attorney General Jorge Messias slammed them as “arbitrary,” “unjustifiable” and “a serious attack on the sovereignty of our country.”
There was no immediate reaction from Brasília to the tariffs announcement, but President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had earlier denounced Trump’s threats as “unacceptable blackmail.” Bolsonaro is on trial for allegedly plotting a coup to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to leftist Lula. He risks up to 40 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors say the plot included a plan to arrest and even assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and Moraes. Brazil has insisted it will proceed in its prosecution of Bolsonaro, and Trump’s intervention in the case has so far improved Lula’s popularity, as the Brazilian leader appeals for national unity in the face of US “interference.”
‘Witch hunt’
Both Marco Rubio, America’s top diplomat, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued statements Wednesday announcing the new sanctions against Moraes.
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“Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against US and Brazilian citizens and companies,” Bessent said.
Secretary of State Rubio accused Moraes of “serious human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention involving flagrant denials of fair trial guarantees and infringing on the freedom of expression.”
Moraes, 56, has played a controversial role in fighting disinformation. He was an omnipresent figure during the polarizing 2022 election campaign, aggressively using his rulings to fight election disinformation on social media. That included blocking the accounts of some prominent conservative figures.
Last year, he ordered the shutdown of tech titan Elon Musk’s X network in Brazil for 40 days for failing to tackle the spread of disinformation shared mainly by Bolsonaro backers. Bolsonaro has called Moraes a dictator, while his son Eduardo, an MP, had lobbied for US sanctions against the “totalitarian” judge.
On Wednesday Eduardo Bolsonaro said the US action was “not about revenge, it’s about justice,” he wrote on X. “Abuses of authority now have global consequences.”
The US Treasury cited the Magnitsky Act for the sanctions. It freezes US-based assets and bars travel to the country for foreign officials accused of human rights abuses or corruption.
Trump’s private media company has also sued Moraes over his social media-related orders.
