Heavy meddle: Trump and Brazil
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.6 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 July 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Donald Trump’s animus towards his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is best seen as solidarity with Jair Bolsonaro, another ousted president who clung to power. India has surpassed China as Asia’s biggest private-jet buyer, but not only because of rising numbers of super-rich. And Hong Kong’s quirky fusion cafes bloom abroad as they thin out at home.
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Transcript
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| 0:21.6 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:30.7 | I'm your host, Jason Palmer. |
| 0:32.6 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:41.5 | Yeah. we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. In the Asian super-rich stakes, it used to be China that stood out, at least if you counted private jet sales. |
| 0:48.6 | Now, Chinese numbers have plummeted, and the big buyer for personal planes in the region is India, |
| 0:56.0 | but not for the same reasons. And Hong Kong's Chachantang or tea restaurants are a quirk of history, a sugary mix of east and west. |
| 1:05.0 | In their homeland, they're thinning out, but in the Hong Kong or diaspora from Australia to Taiwan to Canada, they're booming. |
| 1:14.8 | First up, though. |
| 1:34.0 | President Donald Trump is having yet another personality clash with yet another world leader. |
| 1:38.9 | This time it's Brazil's president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, or Lula. |
| 1:46.5 | Mr. Trump has amped up his favorite new threat, saying he'll impose a 50% tariff on all Brazilian imports, |
| 1:48.8 | which would go into effect on Friday. |
| 1:53.0 | So, pun only half intended here, what's his beef? |
| 2:01.4 | It's fair to say that Trump and Lula have almost nothing in common and do not admire each other. Adelancis is our Brazil bureau chief. |
| 2:04.9 | Lula is a titan of the Latin American left and represents just about everything that Donald |
| 2:10.6 | Trump hates. The stakes in this fight are high, both for Lula and the Brazilian economy, |
| 2:16.4 | but especially for the Brazilian right. |
| 2:20.2 | And with history in mind, this is not at all the first time America has interfered in Brazilian |
| 2:24.4 | politics. What's different now? Set the scene for us these days. In the 70s and 80s, military regimes |
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