Check this out, GZ...Trump is thinking about bringing Brazil into NATO. Brazil is one of the biggest economies in Latin America. That would be a stunning coup and an incredible military and ECONOMIC alliance. I love how Trump has such a good business head on his shoulders. As I've told you, all of my Brazilian friends voted for Bolsonaro and respect Trump...and they hate Socialism. They need an ally like us to lower the barriers to business between our countries, so that both countries can deepen our trade ties. Growth for Brazil via the US is good for both countries. Brazil can be a huge ally to the US and a counterpoint to AMLO in Mexico. Great move by Trump, if he can swing it. He'll need to be prepared for the backlash, though. The idiotic Dems will claim that Bolsonaro is too right wing. Just remember that the Dems want Socialism here and Bolsonaro is anti-Socialist and anti-corruption. That won't sit well with the Dems.
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Trump forges bond with Brazil's Bolsonaro in White House visit
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazil’s new far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro forged a bond over their shared brand of conservative and populist politics on Tuesday, with Trump pledging to give more U.S. support to Brazil’s global ambitions.
In a joint news conference in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said he told Bolsonaro he would designate Brazil a major non-NATO ally and possibly go further by supporting a campaign to make Brazil “maybe a NATO ally.”
Bolsonaro, a former army captain who rode to the presidency with a brash, anti-establishment campaign modeled on Trump’s 2016 run, has declared himself an unabashed admirer of the U.S. president and the American way of life.
He praised Trump for changing the United States in a way he said he hopes to change Brazil.
“Brazil and the United States are tied by the guarantee of liberty, respect for the traditional family, the fear of God our creator, against gender identity, political correctness and fake news,” Bolsonaro said, touching on themes that have inflamed his critics in Brazil.
Nicknamed the ‘Trump of the Tropics,’ Bolsonaro has moved quickly to ally Brazil closer to the United States. That represents a change in diplomatic priorities after over a decade of leftist party rule that had seen Brazil forging closer ties with regional allies.
At Tuesday’s news conference, the two presidents repeatedly rejected socialism, celebrating their joint efforts to oust Venezuela’s left-wing leader, Nicolas Maduro.
They showed an easy rapport, exchanging soccer jerseys from their national teams at the outset of their meeting in the Oval Office, with Trump’s name emblazoned on Brazil’s famous yellow shirt and Bolsonaro’s on the USA uniform.
TRADE PROMISES As leaders of the two largest economies in the Western Hemisphere, Trump and Bolsonaro also discussed how to increase trade and committed to reducing barriers.
“Brazil makes great product and we make great product, and our trade has been never as good as it should be in the past. And in some cases it should be far, far more,” Trump said.
Looming over their discussion was the fact that China, currently embroiled in a trade war with the United States, has eclipsed America in both trade and investment with Brazil.
Bolsonaro’s Economy Minister, Paulo Guedes, on Monday urged the United States to open its market more to Brazil if it wanted to change the status quo.
Trump also said he supported Brazil’s efforts to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a club of wealthier nations sharing best practices on economic policy.
But U.S. support would not come for free, according to Guedes. To get a U.S. endorsement for the OECD, the Americans asked Brazil to give up some benefits at the World Trade Organization (WTO), Guedes told journalists earlier on Tuesday, discussing his meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Making Brazil a “major non-NATO ally” implies a status upgrade that gives a country preferential access to the purchase of U.S. military equipment and technology.
Supporting Brazil for an association with NATO would be a considerable step further, one that Trump recognized would mean he would “have to talk to a lot of people.”
Colombia became in 2018 the only Latin American nation to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as a “global partner,” which means it will not necessarily have to take part in military action.
Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Bolsonaro waived a visa requirement for U.S. visitors to Brazil and in a Fox News interview threw his weight behind Trump’s immigration agenda, which includes a wall on the Mexican border.
“We do agree with President Trump’s decision or proposal on the wall,” Bolsonaro said, in remarks translated to English by the broadcaster. “The vast majority of potential immigrants do not have good intentions. They do not intend to do the best or do good to the U.S. people.”
Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Roberta Rampton, Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Marcelo Rochabrun and Mary Milliken; Editing by Bill Trott and Rosalba O'Brien |
