Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about Trump's tariff threat against Brazil.

Trump continues to Grandpa Simpson his way through international trade.

And this time, he actually chose to tweet tariff promises to a country that imports more from

the U.S. than it exports. For some totally unknown reason, Trump has decided to jeopardize

$100 billion in trade to help a former leader of Brazil. In a lengthy rambling letter,

he posted to social media, which I'll spare y'all

from reading in full. He said in relevant parts that, quote, this trial should not be taking place.

It is a witch hunt that should end immediately. The trial is of the country's former leader, Bolsonaro, who's accused

of plotting a coup. He also said Brazil was engaged in censoring U.S. entities and, quote,

continued attacks on the digital trade activities of American companies. Because of these reasons, he said that August 1st,

he will impose a 50% tariff and indicated that it should be more to level the playing field.

Brazil's response, basically they said bring it. In his own lengthy post to social media, the current president said in relevant part,

quote, Brazil is a sovereign nation with independent institutions and will not accept any form

of tutelage. He then went on to say that the judicial branch was independent and not subject to

interference. What a novel idea.

He then added, quote, any measure to increase tariffs unilaterally will be responded to in light of

Brazil's law of economic reciprocity. So, why is Brazil so willing to tell the U.S. to kick rocks? Because the U.S. has a trade

surplus with them. Total goods traded between the two countries is $92 billion, according to Trump's

U.S. trade representative. Forty-nine point seven billion of that is U.S. exports to Brazil.

That means the U.S. exports more than 7 billion more to Brazil than it imports.

The top exports to Brazil, machinery, aircraft, and so on.

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