While U.S. presidential elections traditionally attract limited attention among the Brazilian public, few observers in Latin America’s largest country are indifferent to the 2020 campaign. That is because Brazil’s populist leader, Jair Bolsonaro—often dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics”—has made alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump a centerpiece of his foreign policy. During his first visit to Washington as president, Bolsonaro used a press conference in the White House to announce that he “firmly believed in Donald Trump’s reelection.”
Late last month, in response to a debate comment from Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden, in which the candidate suggested making a global offer of $20 billion to end deforestation and alluded to unspecified economic consequences, Bolsonaro replied in an all-caps tweet that “OUR SOVEREIGNTY IS NONNEGOTIABLE,” adding that he would not accept “bribes” or “baseless threats.”
