Brazil’s President Lula Responds to Trump Tariffs: Trump Was Not Elected To Be ‘the Emperor of the World’

RUSH EXCERPT:

DA SILVA: "Well, Christiane, for me, it was a surprise. Not only the value of that tariff, but also how it was announced, the way it was announced. I think we‘re lacking a little bit of multilateralism on President Trump‘s mindset, and he knows that a problem of this sort, it is solved in a bargaining table around the bargaining table. So what do we see? We were negotiating with the U.S. Already for some months. My foreign affairs minister, the vice president of the republic, which is also the minister for industry and development and commerce, were negotiating. And since March, we‘ve sent a proposal to the U.S. government. After 10 meetings, we send a proposal on may the 16th saying what we wanted and what was a possible for us to reach an agreement for our surprise, instead of a response to the letter that we sent, we received the news published in the presence of Trump‘s side. It was not a letter said officially by diplomatic means. I think it was a mistake. Big mistake, because the letter that President Trump is full of things that are not true.”