Trump Praises Bolsonaro, Rubio Says US Will Respond To 27-Year Prison Sentence

Jair Bolsonaro. (Wikimedia Commons/Beto Oliveira/C04mara dos Deputados)

JAKARTA - President Donald Trump praised Jair Bolsonaro as a good person, when Foreign Minister Marco Rubio on Thursday said the United States would respond without specifying how, after the former Brazilian president was found guilty of planning a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election.

"Political abuse by human rights violators who have been sanctioned, Alexandre de Moraes, continues, because he and several members of the Brazilian Supreme Court unfairly have decided to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro," Foreign Minister Rubio wrote in X.

"The United States will respond to the hunt for this witch properly," he said.

Meanwhile, Brazil's Foreign Ministry called Rubio's comments a threat "attacking Brazilian authorities and ignoring strong facts and evidence in the notes."

The ministry said Brazilian democracy would not be intimidated by the United States.

Bolsonaro, who had close ties to Trump during his first term at the White House, became the first former president in Brazilian history to be convicted of attacking democracy after a majority of five judges at Brazil's Supreme Court decided to punish him on Thursday. He was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison.

"Well, I watched the trial. I know him pretty well, a foreign leader. I think he is a good Brazilian president, and it's shocking that it could happen, exactly as they tried to do me, but they didn't qualify at all," Trump told reporters when asked about Bolsonaro who was found guilty and whether it meant additional sanctions.

"But I can always say this: I know him as president of Brazil. He's a good person, and I don't think that's going to happen," he said.

Trump, who also faces various criminal charges and eventually became the first former US president to be convicted of crimes last year, has criticized Brazil's justice system and threatened to impose tariffs on the South American country for his abuse of Bolsonaro.

In July, he charged 50 percent of Brazil's goods to fight what he called the "witch hunt" against Bolsonaro.

He then excluded some of Brazil's exports, including passenger vehicles and a large number of spare parts and components used on civilian aircraft.

In the same month, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading Bolsonaro's criminal case, on charges of allowing arbitrary pre-trial detention and suppressing freedom of expression.