Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spent close to three hours in the White House on Thursday with Donald Trump, in a working lunch the two men closed to reporters and which Brazilian officials hoped would reset a relationship that has spent much of the past year in open friction.
Speaking afterwards from the Brazilian embassy in Washington, Lula said he had left "very, very satisfied" and described the meeting as "important for Brazil, and an important meeting for the United States". He said he had personally asked Trump to skip a joint press appearance — a remark that defused speculation in Brazilian media of a breakdown when the cameras did not appear.
The agenda ranged across tariffs, organised crime, critical minerals and US scrutiny of Pix, Brazil's instant-payments system. American officials said US and Brazilian trade officials would meet "in coming weeks" to work through the additional duties Trump imposed last year, which Brasília says have cost it billions in steel and orange-juice revenue.
Trump posted on Truth Social after the lunch hailing his "very dynamic" Brazilian counterpart — a marked shift from his rhetoric earlier this spring, when he had publicly mocked Lula and threatened further tariffs over Brazil's prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The trip lands in a difficult domestic moment. Lula's government suffered two parliamentary defeats last week: the lower house overrode his veto on a bill reducing Bolsonaro's prison sentence, and the Senate rejected one of his Supreme Court nominees, the first such rejection in more than a century. He is also weighing a fourth, nonconsecutive term in October's presidential election; polls put him roughly even with Bolsonaro's senator son, Flávio.
Brazilian officials said the talks did not produce a written joint statement, only a verbal commitment to a follow-up meeting between trade representatives. Foreign minister Mauro Vieira will travel to Washington later this month to take that work forward.
Critical minerals featured heavily in the discussion, with Lula offering expanded access to Brazilian rare-earth deposits in exchange for an end to the additional steel duties. US officials would not confirm the linkage but described the offer as "part of the picture".