Since last year, U.S. coffee prices have skyrocketed by more than 20% according to CNN, largely due to the massive 50% tariff levied by President Donald Trump on Brazil, one of America’s premier trade partners and the world’s largest source of coffee beans.
Trump has openly framed these tariffs as punishment aimed at Brazil’s handling of censorship policies and the prosecution of fellow conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro. To date, Trump has not provided a clear economic rationale for this decision, despite the U.S.’s $6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil in 2024. In his crusade against the Brazilian justice system, Trump is prioritizing political alignment with Bolsonaro over the needs of American citizens.
Bolsonaro has recently been convicted by Brazil’s supreme court, The Supreme Federal Court, on account of planning a coup to overturn his 2022 election loss. Preparing for the contingency of his possible loss, Bolsonaro spent his campaign trying to undermine confidence in the electoral system. On election day, he ordered military traffic blockades in leftist areas and proclaimed the election stolen.
Bolsonaro was also planning on invoking an emergency decree to suspend the election and had been considering plans of assassinating his political opponents. On Jan. 8, 2021, far-right Brazilian rioters stormed the capitol as Bolsonaro waited hours to explicitly condemn the violence, as he vacationed in Florida.
Bolsonaro’s actions following his defeat were remarkably similar to Trump’s in the 2020 election. Viewing his political ally’s legal battle as evidence of political persecution against a conservative leader, Trump has used his executive powers to support Bolsonaro.
Before the U.S. Supreme Court had even issued a verdict, the president imposed the tariff on Brazil and invoked the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act — a severe form of sanctions used for human rights offenders — on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre De Moraes.
In his executive order, Trump cited the political “persecution” of Bolsonaro and abuses against freedom of speech committed by Justice De Moraes. In an effort to protect democracy, De Moraes had adopted strict social media censorship policies attacking forms of anti-democratic speech, which at one point led to a suspension of X, formerly known as Twitter.
Trump viewed these restrictions on U.S.-based social media companies as attacks on American and Brazilian freedom of speech. While Trump is entitled to his opinion, to claim that this censorship represents an abuse of human rights is ludicrous, especially when Brazil’s free speech laws outlaw speech intended to destabilize democracy and many other European countries practice similar policies.
It is unprecedented for the president of the United States to weaponize tariffs and sanctions to interfere in a sovereign democratic nation’s supreme court case. By levying a massive tariff and human rights sanctions on a U.S. ally and crucial trade partner for non-economic, personal reasons, Trump is failing to prioritize the citizens he serves. Trump cannot continue to claim that he follows his proclaimed America first platform.
Trump sacrificed the well-being of American consumers in an attempt to influence the verdict of a Brazilian court case involving his political ally. Trump would rather fight for a guilty Brazilian conservative ally than ensure American citizens can afford their daily morning coffee.