Donald Trump deflected from a fellow world leader’s annoyance at how long their press conference was dragging on by telling journalists they were “boring” him anyway.
“They’re not great questions today, I must say,” Trump joked toward the end of a junket with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Sunday, the first day of the ASEAN 2025 summit in Malaysia. “That’s a lot of boring questions. We’ll see you later, thank you.”
Lula, for his part, did not appear to have taken issue with the quality of the interview. Having noted early on he thought journalists would have good news “after” they’d convened in private, he did not speak again until his U.S. counterpart had fielded questions for almost ten minutes.
“I would like to suggest the press continue the interview AFTER the meeting,” he said. “We don’t have much time, and we don’t want to waste time or lose time talking with journalists. We have a lot to talk about. If you have patience, you’ll know the results of the meeting afterwards.”
Trump’s love of media appearances is well-established. With his rallies known to run upward of three hours, even his most ardent supporters have on occasion bailed before the president was done speaking his piece.
Lula is not an ardent supporter of the MAGA leader. A left-wing leader who spent several years in jail under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of Trump’s, the Brazilian leader has previously blasted the U.S. president on everything from climate denialism to his stance on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
“No gringo is going to give orders to this president,” he said earlier in July, responding to Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs against much of the rest of the planet, including a 50% levy on Brazilian imports.
Those measures formed the basis of the U.S. and Brazilian presidents’ meeting Sunday, with the MAGA leader saying ahead of time he’d be open to negotiating about the levies.
Trump appeared wary of tension in the room ahead of their talk. Asked by reporters about Bolsonaro, he said “I always liked him… feel very badly about what happened to him,” before snapping back that it was “none of your business” whether the former president’s case would be “on the agenda today.”
Brazil’s courts convicted Bolsonaro in September of attempting to overthrow the results of the country’s 2022 election. Currently under house arrest, he faces 27 years in prison on charges including an assassination plot against President Lula. He denies those allegations and has vowed to appeal.
Trump has framed his tariffs on Brazil as retaliation for what he describes as a “witch hunt” against the former leader, claiming Bolsonaro is “not guilty of anything, except for having fought for the people.”
Lula has since shot back in an NYT op-ed, calling the levies “not only misguided but illogical,” and insisting “Brazil’s democracy and sovereignty are not on the table.”
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