Rick Scott supports Donald Trump decision to wax Brazil with tariffs

There’s no daylight between Florida’s senior Senator and the President when it comes to taking a hard line against a major South American country.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott told Fox Business viewers that he agrees with President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a 50% tariff on Brazil, concurring with Trump about the “witch hunt” against former leader Jair Bolsonaro.

“Well, the trial is a witch hunt. It clearly is, and you look at what’s happening in free speech in Brazil, it really scares you,” Scott told host Maria Bartiromo.

Trump said the trial of Bolsonaro, for what The Associated Press calls “trying to overturn his 2022 election loss,” was “a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”

Scott went on to say that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was “doing a horrible job for Brazil.”

Scott interacted with Bolsonaro when he led Brazil. But they weren’t always in lockstep.

In 2021, the Senator urged Brazil to decouple from China’s Huawei in developing a 5G cellphone network. The company has been in Brazil for more than a quarter century.

During the early days of the COVID pandemic, Scott isolated after meeting with Bolsonaro, as one of the President’s aides tested positive for coronavirus.

Regarding free speech in the country, Scott and other Republicans joined in on a letter to former Secretary of State Antony Blinken that agitated for action. However, those concerns clearly still preoccupy the Senator from Naples.

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Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Republished with permission.