Brazil and the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders
By James N. Green*
No one should be surprised by the dozens of executive orders that Donald Trump signed on Monday, January 20, the first day in office as the 47th president of the United States. He was very clear during the election campaign about what he wanted to do during his second term in office. Insisting that he had a landslide electoral victory even though he only won by a 1.6 per cent margin of the votes cast and the results were close in many of the swing states, Trump believes his “mandate” justifies sweeping changes to Biden’s policies. His “shock and awe” strategy of overwhelming the public with radical measures is designed to demoralize his opposition and make it hard to focus on or prioritize specific issues in order to block them. Many of his decrees will have a very serious indirect, if not a direct, impact on Brazil.
One of his first measure was to pardon over 1,500 people who challenged the 2020 election results by invading the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 and violently attacking the police that were protecting the Congress. Bolsonsaro’s supporters will likely use this precedent to argue that the Brazilian Congress should issue a similar amnesty for the January 8, 2023 insurrectionists and overturn the decision by the Supreme Electoral Court that bans Bolsonsaro from running for office before 2030.
While pardoning his criminally convicted allies, at the same time Trump has promised to deport an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States. He has shut down a new electronic system that allowed people seeking political asylum to request hearing appointments. Trump has also issued a decree to take away the constitutionally guaranteed citizenship rights of their children born in the United States. Furthermore, he has declared the southern border represents a national emergency and has authorized the U.S. military to become involved in border control and possibly even the apprehension of undocumented people residing and working here.
There are approximately 1.8 million Brazilians living in this country and perhaps half of them don’t have legal papers. Many contribute to the economy by taking low-paying service jobs that other don’t wish to do, and they send an estimate US$3 billion annually to their families in Brazil. Although it is not clear to what extent Trump will be able to carry out his deportation plan, it has already caused serious panic among the Brazilian immigrants in the United States, who face being deported with no legal proceedings to protect them. It will also create hardships for those families in Brazil that rely on financial support from relatives in the United States.
Many observers of the recent U.S. elections insist that one of the main reasons why Trump won was the effect of inflation on people’s daily lives. However, deporting millions of undocumented workers, who are essential for agricultural production in the United States, will likely mean a rise in food prices. Similarly, Trump’s threat of imposing tariffs on imported goods from around the world will also increase inflation, potentially weakening his support, perhaps not among his base but certainly among those who voted for him without much enthusiasm.
This measure, too, might have a significant effect on Brazilian agrobusiness as the United States is Brazil’s second largest trading partner. Ironically, Trump supporter Steve Bannon has heralded Eduardo Bolsonaro as Brazil’s next president, when new U.S. tariff policies might significantly harm the sector of the Brazilian economy that most supported Bolsonaro and is delighted that Trump is in office.
Although Jair Bolsonaro was unable to attend the inauguration because Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes confiscated his passport because he was deemed a flight risk, some of Bolsonaro’s prominent supporters were there in full force. Some, no doubt, hoped for time with Elon Musk, who has carried out an international campaign against Moraes, claiming he has repressed free speech in his efforts to eliminate fake news on social media. Among the members of the extreme right contingent was journalist Paulo Figueiredo, the grandson of the Brazil’s last dictatorship, who visited Washington last year to participate in a congressional hearing in which he defended his father as a democrat and accused the current government of being an authoritarian dictatorship.
At the same time, these extremists seem to applaud Trump’s foreign policy. When questioned by a reporter on inauguration day about how his administration will deal with Latin America and Brazil, Trump commented: “They need us much more than we need them. We don't need them,” he said. “They need us. Everybody needs us.” Once again, Trump showed the world how arrogant and uninformed he is.
Over the last 150 years, different U.S. administrations have not hesitated to invade countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, heeding diverse political and economic interests. The U.S. support of the 1964 coup in Brazil remains a tragic moment in the history of relations between the two countries. Fortunately, in 2022, the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress sent clear messages that the United States believes in and supports democracy in Brazil. In that regard, in July 2022, the WBO organized a delegation of representatives from 20 Brazilian social movements and NGOs who traveled to Washington to alert the Congress, the White House, the State Department and the Organization of American States of the imminent threat to Brazilian democracy posed by Bolsonaro.
We now know that these initiatives contributed to dividing the Brazilian armed forces with a sector declining to join in the coup attempt. More recently, we have learned that the plot involved the assassination of President Lula, Vice President Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Moraes.
Trump, however, wants to return to the past. In classical imperial language he declared in his inaugural speech that we wanted to expand U.S. territory and threatened to “take back” the Panama Canal, among other measures. Whether this is a bluff or represents a real geo-political intent, if he does launch an invasion, Brazil, along with many other countries in the region will no doubt offer stiff opposition in international bodies such as the Organization of American States and the United Nation. But Trump doesn’t seem to care about international public organizations designed to promote peace, understanding, and global well-being. This is why he initiated the process to withdraw the United States from the Paris Accord and has announced that the United States will leave the World Health Organization.
All these measures are extremely alarming to the Washington Brazil Office and its allies. Although many activists in the United States are in despair about the current moment, we can learn from Brazil where four years fighting to defend democracy led to a victory of the current government. We also are aware of a long tradition of mobilization in the United States. To quote the famous union organizer, Joe Hill: “Don’t mourn, organize!”
*James N. Green is Professor Emeritus of Brazilian History and Culture at Brown University, author or co-editor of eleven books on Brazil, and President of the Washington Brazil Office Board of Directors.
This article was written for issue 151 of the WBO newsletter, dated January 24, 2025. To subscribe and receive free weekly news and analyses like this, simply enter your email in the field provided.
