Brazil’s Lula blasts Trump’s fear-based rule, calls for ‘great maturity’
‘Trump has no right to wake up in the morning and threaten a country,’ Brazil’s president says
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva delivered a blunt critique of US President Donald Trump in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais published on Thursday, saying world leaders should seek respect rather than rule by fear.
“Trump has no right to wake up in the morning and threaten a country,” Lula told El Pais, referring to the president’s public threat on April 7 to wipe out Iranian civilisation as part of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
“He wasn’t elected for that, and his constitution doesn’t allow it.”
Lula, who is set to meet another leftist critic of Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, on Friday in Barcelona, called the US president’s approach to foreign policy “a very misguided game” driven by the assumption that Washington’s military and economic power allows it to set the rules.
“No one has the right to frighten others,” Lula added. “It’s essential that the powerful take greater responsibility for maintaining peace.”
The Brazilian president described himself as a leader who prefers respect to fear.