President Donald Trump is threatening Brazil with 50 percent tariffs over the country’s prosecution of its former president and far-right Trump acolyte, Jair Bolsonaro, which he called an “international disgrace.”

In a letter to Brazil’s current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which Trump posted to Truth Social Wednesday afternoon, he wrote that “Due in part to Brazil’s insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans (as lately illustrated by the Brazilian Supreme Court, which has issued hundreds of SECRET and UNLAWFUL Censorship Orders on U.S. Social Media platforms, threatening them with Millions of Dollars in Fines and Eviction from the Brazilian Social Media market)… we will charge Brazil a 50% tariff.”

The threatened tariff rate marks a substantial hike from the 10 percent duty Trump initially imposed on Brazil as part of his so-called reciprocal tariffs unveiled in April.

And it echoes a social media post Trump shared earlier this week, accusing the country of unfairly treating Bolsonaro, who is on trial over allegations related to his role in 2022 riots in the capital of Brasilia, when his supporters stormed government buildings to protest his election loss.

The overtly political tone of the letter is a break with more than a dozen other letters Trump has sent to foreign governments this week, threatening to impose new tariff rates on their exports to the U.S. beginning Aug. 1. But it’s in line with Trump’s belief that tariffs are about more than just trade, and can be used as leverage to pressure countries to cave on any number of different issues, from immigration to defense spending.

The letter is the first addressed to a South American country. The Trump administration’s trade negotiations have focused more heavily on major trading partners in Asia and Europe.

Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil in 2018 after emulating Trump’s political playbook, but lost his reelection bid in 2022 and alleged, similar to Trump in 2020, that it was rigged against him. He has been under criminal investigation for conspiring to overturn the results, which culminated in a violent insurrection attack against government buildings in the nation’s capital of Brasilia that mirrored the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. Trump, in is letter to da Silva, declared the investigation “a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY.”

Yet Bolsonaro enjoys strong popularity among his growing base of evangelical voters in the South American country and he and his allies have maintained warm ties with Trump’s orbit. Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, has become a full-time lobbyist for his father’s cause, meeting regularly with influential members of Congress and pushing the U.S. to pressure the Brazilian government to release his father. It is expected that the elder Bolsonaro will try and stage a political comeback in the face of Lula da Silva’s sagging approval ratings and exploding crime in the country’s major cities.

The administration has also taken issue with Brazil’s engagement with Russia and China as part of the BRICS grouping of nations. Lula da Silva, who was first elected president in the 2000s, has championed a multipolar world and embraced close relations with China, Russia, India and other emerging powers. Lula has also maintained warm ties with the authoritarian governments of Venezuela and Cuba, which have been in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.

A POLITICO review of Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s public readouts of phone calls and meetings suggests that neither has spoken with their Brazilian counterpart since taking office.

Trump also directed U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to open an investigation into Brazil’s trading practices, which would give the U.S. authority to retaliate against the country with tariffs. It’s the same authority Trump used in 2018 to impose new tariffs on China.

Echoing the wording of other letters, Trump wrote “there will be no Tariff if Brazil, or companies within your Country, decide to build or manufacture products within the United States.”

In response to diatribes from the United States, Lula da Silva has called Trump a wannabe “emperor” and dismissed tariff threats as “irresponsible.”