President Trump once claimed tariffs were about restoring reciprocity. Now he uses them like balloons in a post-truth populist pageant, slapping a 50 percent levy on Brazil not because of of trade imbalances, but due to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's legal troubles.

Trump's latest tariff gesture is political grievance diplomacy, not economic policy.

If Trump believes Brazil's prosecution of Bolsonaro for alleged involvement in a failed coup is illegitimate, he should advocate or impose sanctions. Instead, he imposes a tariff that hurts U.S. consumers and exporters, even though the U.S. ran a $7.4 billion trade surplus with Brazil in 2024.

In his public letter, Trump lashed out at Brazil's government for prosecuting Bolsonaro, calling the charges an "international disgrace." He declared his tariff a protest against Brazil's alleged "attacks on free elections" — by which he meant the regulation of American tech platforms that hosted........

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