“Our Representatives are scheduled to get together to discuss certain key elements. Additional meetings will be scheduled over the coming months, as necessary,” Trump added.
The White House’s press guidance, released Wednesday night, listed a bilateral meeting between Lula and Trump at 11:15 a.m., expected to take place before the White House press pool. But hours passed before it was confirmed that the meeting would remain private.
A source familiar with the meeting confirmed to Breitbart News that the Brazilian delegation wanted the meeting away from reporters out of fear that Lula would be asked about his critical rhetoric toward Trump.
Mary Margaret Olohan of the Daily Wire first reported that Lula’s team did not want reporters on hand for the meeting due to concerns about “tough questions.”
As one example of his Trump criticism, Lula called the war with Iran “madness.”
“It is unacceptable that Trump starts a war with Iran and that the poor in Africa and Latin America, who will have to spend more money on beans, meat and vegetables, pay the price,” Lula said.
He was also critical of Trump’s removal of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his pressure on the Cuban regime.
“The self-determination of peoples, their territorial integrity and sovereignty should not be violated. Just as [Vladimir] Putin had no right to invade Ukraine, Trump has no right to intervene in Venezuela or threaten Cuba,” Lula claimed.
Through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Trump imposed a 40 percent tariff on Brazil last July, declaring Brazil a “national security threat” at the time. That round of tariffs came on top of his 10 percent Liberation Day tariffs imposed on April 2, 2025.
In November, he exempted certain products from the 40 percent tariff, as Breitbart News noted, including coffee, beef, and other agricultural products.
In February, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump’s IEEPA tariffs in a 6-3 decision, and the president responded by instituting a 15 percent worldwide tariff rate.