Socialist President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday claimed that President Donald Trump is not his “enemy” and he does not seek to pick a fight against the American head of state.
Lula reportedly clarified that he intends to wage a “narrative” war against the Trump administration. Lula is accusing the Trump administration of trying to “meddle” in Brazil’s upcoming October elections in which the incumbent president is seeking reelection for a fourth term.
The Brazilian president delivered his assertions while speaking at the national convention of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), which forms part of the ruling leftist coalition led by Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT). The event saw PSB confirm Vice President Geraldo Alckmin as Lula’s running mate in the October presidential election.
The Brazilian outlet Poder 360 published a video of Lula’s participation at the PSB convention and a Portuguese-language transcription of his remarks. Throughout his roughly 25-minute speech, Lula reportedly said that he does not want President Trump as an enemy and claimed, “Trump sometimes tries to pick a fight with me, but I don’t want to fight with him, not even a little bit. I’m not stupid.”
“The guy [Trump] says he has the biggest ships in the world. The guy says he has the biggest atomic bomb in the world, the biggest plane in the world, the biggest army in the world. Do you think I want to pick a fight with him, for f**k’s sake?” Lula said, according to Poder 360.
“I only have you guys, man. I don’t want a fight. I want peace, man. I want peace, and I want to defeat them in the narrative. I want to wage a war of narratives,” he continued. “Who is telling the truth, or who is telling the lie?”
Immediately afterwards, Lula confirmed that his administration recently denied visas to two U.S. officials who planned to visit the country, claiming they sought to “interfere” in the presidential election.
“This week we had to deny visas to two young people whom they [the Trump administration] are sending to Brazil to meddle in the Brazilian elections,” Lula claimed.
Reuters, citing two Brazilian government sources, reported over the weekend that the two U.S. officials were denied Brazilian visas on grounds that they allegedly planned to “travel to the country to cast doubt” on the integrity of Brazil’s electoral system.
The unnamed sources identified the U.S. officials as Riley M. Barnes, assistant secretary at the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and Deputy Assistant Secretary Samuel Samson. A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Reuters over the weekend that both officials planned to visit Brasília from July 27 to 30 to hold meetings with local government officials, religious leaders, and civil society members to discuss election integrity, religious freedom, and freedom of expression.
Brazilian government sources reportedly said that the alleged plot represented an attempt to “shape” the election in which Lula is running against Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro. The State Department spokesperson rejected the Brazilian government’s claims as “baseless” and described the planned visit to Reuters as a routine visit in line with the statutory mandate of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
Neither President Lula nor any member of his administration has publicly disclosed evidence to substantiate the accusations against the U.S. officials at press time.
Lula’s remarks on President Trump, and his confirmation of the denied visas to the U.S. State Department officials, follow Trump signing a continuation of the July 2025 executive order declaring Brazil a “national security threat” to the United States. The Brazilian government condemned the order’s continuation, claiming that it “repeats accusations unsupported by the facts claiming that Brazil poses a threat to U.S. national security, foreign policy, and the economy.”
Additionally, Lula’s remarks come right as his administration filed a consultation request before the World Trade Organization (WTO) about two new sets of U.S. tariffs imposed on Brazilian goods that recently went into effect.
The Brazilian socialist president also referred to his recent impasse with Argentine President Javier Milei, who travelled to Brasília to endorse Flavio Bolsonaro. On Saturday, speaking at the pro-Bolsonaro Liberal Party (PL) national convention, Milei condemned Lula as a “thief,” “convict,” and “socialist trash.”
“You saw the nonsense the Argentine president pulled here. I didn’t say anything, because my relationship is one between heads of state, and I like the Argentine people and I’m not going to get into a back-and-forth with that guy,” Lula said.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.