President Donald Trump said his White House meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “went very well” following hours of closed-door talks that shut out reporters despite originally being scheduled as open press.
“Just concluded my meeting with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the very dynamic President of Brazil,” Trump posted on Truth Social afterward, adding that the two leaders discussed trade and tariffs and that additional meetings between representatives from both countries are planned in the coming months.
The bilateral meeting drew attention earlier in the day, after reporters waited roughly 3 hours before learning that the press would not be allowed into the session at all.
A source familiar with the meeting told The Daily Wire the Brazilian delegation opposed press access because Lula likely would have faced tough questions about his past attacks on Trump.
Lula is still expected to give a news conference later at the Brazilian embassy in Washington, according to the BBC.
Over the past two years, Trump and Lula have exchanged insults, clashed over trade and free speech, and sharply disagreed over Brazil’s prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Despite those tensions, both leaders have recently attempted to stabilize relations through private outreach and softer rhetoric.
Encontro com o presidente dos Estados Unidos, @POTUS, em Washington.
🎥 @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/bfg2qqYxIg
— Lula (@LulaOficial) May 7, 2026
During the closed-press meeting, the two leaders were expected to discuss trade, regional security, and organized crime, with the Trump administration reportedly weighing whether to designate two of Brazil’s largest drug gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.
Lula, a socialist leftist leader who openly supported Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election, previously accused Trump of representing “fascism and Nazism coming back with a different face” and once referred to him as a wannabe “emperor of the world.”
Trump has repeatedly condemned what he called the “political persecution” of Bolsonaro and his supporters by Brazil’s Supreme Court and government.
In July, Trump signed an executive order imposing an additional 40% tariff on Brazil, declaring that the country posed an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy. The order specifically cited Brazil’s prosecution of Bolsonaro and alleged censorship of conservatives.
Also in July, Trump took to Truth Social to accuse Brazil of “doing a terrible thing on their treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro.”
“He is not guilty of anything, except having fought for THE PEOPLE. I have gotten to know Jair Bolsonaro, and he was a strong Leader, who truly loved his Country,” Trump wrote. “This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent — Something I know much about!”
Trump added that he would be closely watching what he called the “WITCH HUNT” against Bolsonaro and argued that the only real judgment should come from Brazilian voters at the ballot box.
“LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!” Trump wrote.
In another post from the same day, Trump posted a letter he wrote to Lula where he defended Bolsonaro and condemned the Brazilian government’s prosecution of him as a politically motivated “witch hunt” and said the trial against him is “an international disgrace.”
Bolsonaro, Lula’s longtime political rival and a close ideological ally of Trump, often nicknamed the “Trump of the Tropics,” had close relations with the American president during his only term as president from 2019 to 2023. Bolsonaro, 71, was sentenced to 27 years in prison by Brazil’s Supreme Court over allegations that he attempted to remain in power after losing the presidential election to Lula. Prosecutors also alleged Bolsonaro was aware of plans to assassinate Lula and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin.
Bolsonaro’s supporters argue the prosecution was politically motivated and designed to prevent the right-wing leader from returning to office. He has since been placed under temporary house arrest because of health issues. The case remains deeply polarizing in Brazil and has become a major point of tension between the Trump and Lula governments.
The political battle is already shaping Brazil’s next presidential race. An AtlasIntel/Bloomberg poll published in March found Bolsonaro’s son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, narrowly leading Lula in a hypothetical runoff, with 47.6% support to Lula’s 46.6%. Supporters of the Bolsonaro movement have argued that polling in Brazil has historically underestimated conservative support, drawing comparisons to polling misses during Trump’s 2016 victory in the United States.
Last week, Brazil’s Congress overrode Lula’s veto of a law that would significantly reduce prison sentences for some coup-related convictions, a move that could potentially benefit Bolsonaro. Flavio Bolsonaro celebrated the vote on X, calling it a “very special birthday present” after the override coincided with his 45th birthday. The measure could still face legal challenges before Brazil’s Supreme Court.
In the letter, Trump also accused Brazil of undermining free speech and democratic values, specifically targeting Brazil’s Supreme Court and its efforts to regulate online speech. He claimed the court had issued “secret and unlawful censorship orders” against American social media companies, threatening them with massive fines and even removal from the Brazilian market.
The criticism was largely aimed at Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw investigations into Jair Bolsonaro and his allies and became a central figure in Brazil’s clashes with Elon Musk over censorship and online speech.
Trump sanctioned Moraes, with the administration characterizing his actions as politically motivated persecution and part of a broader crackdown on conservative opposition figures in Brazil. Trump later lifted the sanctions in December after the passage of a major amnesty bill by Brazil’s lower house, which a senior administration official told CBS News was viewed by the U.S. as a sign that “lawfare conditions” in the country were beginning to improve.
Despite the hostility, relations between the two leaders began to thaw in recent months. Trump later rolled back some tariffs on key Brazilian exports, and the pair softened their rhetoric after meetings on the sidelines of international summits. At the United Nations General Assembly last year, the two embraced publicly, and Trump reportedly described Lula as “a very nice man.” The leaders later held a private meeting in Malaysia and continued speaking by phone.
The renewed diplomatic push was reportedly aided by Brazilian billionaire Joesley Batista, one of the owners of JBS, the world’s largest meat processor. Reuters reported that Batista helped broker the Trump-Lula meeting. A U.S.-based poultry company, majority-owned by JBS, also donated $5 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration committee, according to Reuters.
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