Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized U.S. Secretary of State and Republican Marco Rubio, calling him a “frustrated Latin American.” In a speech at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, the Brazilian president attributed part of the problems in Brazil’s relationship with Donald Trump to Rubio.

Lula explained that his team holds weekly telephone calls with the Trump administration and has sent several documents demonstrating what he described as fallacies in the arguments used to impose the latest tariffs on Brazil.

“There is a man who does not like Brazil, who does not like Latin America, and who is a pocket-sized leader, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. He does not like [Brazil]. I told Trump: ‘This boy does not like Brazil.’ He is anti-Latin American, or a frustrated Latin American.”

The Brazilian president recalled that Rubio is of Cuban descent. His father, Mario Rubio Reina, emigrated to the United States in 1956, three years before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. “He is descended from a Cuban family from Miami. He hates Cuba, he hates Colombia, he hates Brazil. And he does things differently from what we discuss with Trump,” Lula said.

When the latest round of tariffs against Brazil was implemented, Rubio accused the Brazilian president on the social-media platform X. “Let there be no doubt about the reason for the tariffs: President Lula and his government did not negotiate with the United States in good faith,” Rubio said. “His economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians. Over the past year, Lula prioritized his own ego over an agreement that would seek the well-being of the Brazilian people, and these tariffs are the price to pay for that.”

Meetings with Trump

President Lula also recalled in his speech the occasions on which he met Donald Trump, saying that during those encounters he consistently emphasized the need for a harmonious approach to bilateral relations and to the wider international community.

“He always treated me with great respect. I treat him with great respect,” the Brazilian president said. Lula recalled telling Trump during a meeting in Malaysia: “We have to convey to the world the responsibility of the two largest democracies in the world, which have had diplomatic relations for 201 years, and we have to convey to the world a certain degree of harmony.”