Once called the planet’s most popular politician, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil faced long odds in next year’s election. President Trump’s tariffs are changing that.

The US leader surprised many by ratcheting up tariff threats and trade investigations amid his ire over the trial against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he planned to hit Brazil with a 50% tariff, in part because of the treatment of its former president Jair Bolsonaro, his political ally.

President Donald Trump singled out Brazil for import taxes of 50% on Wednesday for its treatment of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, showing that personal grudges rather than simple economics are a driving force in the U.

The Trump administration initiated a trade investigation of Brazil on Tuesday, an action President Donald Trump threatened last week as he criticized the country's unfair trade practices and "witch hunt" against his political ally,

None of the countries targeted in the first batch of letters — the Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Sri Lanka — is a major industrial rival to the United States.

A prosecutor asked Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday to find ex-president Jair Bolsonaro guilty of plotting a coup, in closing arguments after a trial that saw US President Donald Trump try to intervene on behalf of his right-wing ally.