Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has told US President Donald Trump that he has no right to govern other countries, insisting that nations must be allowed to protect their sovereignty and pursue their own interests.
Gatekeepers News reports that Lula made the remarks in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He criticised what he described as Trump’s unilateral approach to international relations and said stronger countries should not impose their will on weaker ones.
“President Trump was elected to be the US president. He has the right to govern the US, but he doesn’t have the right to govern other countries,” Lula said.
“He doesn’t have the right to impose his will. He has to have the willingness to negotiate.”
Lula said Trump’s approach appeared to be based on the idea that economic and military strength gave the US the right to dictate terms to other countries.
“He has a way of governing that I’m stronger, I’m the mightiest, I’m the richest, I can do everything, and all the others have to obey. I don’t agree with that. It’s the stronger law.”
The Brazilian president said his government was not seeking confrontation with Washington but wanted respect for national sovereignty.
“We just want to say that every country has their own sovereignty. They take care of their own interests and the US cannot impose their rules over the others,” he said.
Lula rejects US tariffs
Lula also criticised tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Brazilian goods, describing the justification for the measures as false.
The US imposed a 25 percent tariff on some Brazilian goods in July, citing what it described as unfair Brazilian trade practices. Brazil subsequently began considering reciprocal measures, although Lula said his government would continue negotiating with Washington before taking such action.
“I think those tariffs were based on lies,” Lula said.
He said Brazil had responded by seeking to diversify its trading relationships rather than focusing exclusively on the dispute with the US.
Lula said Brazilian exports to the US had fallen by nine percent while imports from the US declined by 8.5 percent following the tariff measures.
He said trade with other major economies had increased, citing growth in Brazil’s trade with Japan, Germany and the European Union.
“So I’m not going to just try to cry out about the milk that was spilled on the floor. I’m going to seek other partners to try to buy and sell,” he said.
Lula said Brazil would continue negotiating with the US and would only consider retaliatory measures if talks failed.
“I don’t want to go to a tariff war with the US and neither with any other country,” he said.
Lula warns against election interference
The Brazilian president also expressed concern about possible foreign interference in Brazil’s elections.
Lula said there were indications of possible interference involving artificial intelligence but acknowledged that there was no concrete evidence.
“There’s some clues of interference, of artificial intelligence going on. I’m a little bit concerned with Marco Rubio, because Marco Rubio is very close to the Bolsonaro’s family,” he said.
“But for the meanwhile, we just have suspicion. There’s nothing concrete.”
Lula has separately warned against foreign interference in Brazil’s electoral process, amid strained relations between his government and the Trump administration.
‘US gives impression it is governing Venezuela’
Lula also criticised the US role in Venezuela, saying Washington’s actions had created the impression that it was exercising control over the country.
“The US conveys the idea that they’re governing Venezuela,” he said.
“Every document that we read, the agreements, it looks like the US is the big boss of Venezuela. The sovereignty of the country has ended.”
He said the situation was not beneficial to Venezuela, the US or democracy, and argued that Venezuelans should be allowed to determine their political future through elections.
“If I was Delcy, the president, I would call for election, national election, so that people could choose who’s going to be the next president of the country,” Lula said.
Lula’s comments came amid broader criticism of Washington’s approach to Venezuela and its wider policy of asserting greater US influence in the Western Hemisphere.
