Lula, Trump set for contrasting UN speeches as Brazil election nears
Presidents Trump and Lula
Ricardo Stuckert/PR
Amid elections in Brazil and the United States and a crisis of multilateralism, the international community will be watching the speeches by Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday (22). Lula, who will speak first, and Trump, who will follow, are expected to take the podium with sharply contrasting views of the world.
“It’s ironic that the UN is the place where Lula and Trump briefly made peace last year. After all, it’s where their differences are perhaps most evident,” said Benjamin Gedan, a senior fellow and director of the Latin America Program at the Stimson Center.
He was referring to the leaders’ encounter in 2025, when Lula and Trump briefly crossed paths in the hallway between their speeches and the U.S. president said he had “excellent chemistry” with the Brazilian leader, amid tensions over the sweeping tariffs imposed by Washington.
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“Lula has long been a champion of international cooperation. Trump, by contrast, sees the UN as a waste of money—and still resents the organization’s decision decades ago not to hire his company for a renovation project,” Gedan said. The election calendar, he added, will do little to bridge that divide.
The presidents will speak less than two weeks before Brazil’s October 4 presidential election, with polls showing Lula (Workers’ Party, PT) and Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party, PL) in a tie. Americans will also go to the polls in November, when Trump’s Republican Party is expected to lose control of the Lower House and may also lose the Senate.
“It will be a platform for both presidents to talk about elections, directly or indirectly,” said Lucas de Souza Martins, a professor of American politics and international relations at Temple University.
For Bruna Santos, director of the Brazil Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, it will be “virtually impossible” to completely separate Lula’s UN speech from domestic political messaging, even when he is discussing foreign policy.
As Valor has reported, Lula is expected to reinforce his defense of sovereignty and democracy in his UN speech and send a message against foreign interference in Brazil’s election, without explicitly naming any officials or countries. “Lula may not mention Trump directly, but criticism of unilateralism, sanctions, protectionism, and attempts at political interference will easily be understood as references to the U.S.,” Santos noted.
Brazilian government officials see attempts by the U.S. to interfere in the election in favor of Flávio Bolsonaro, but note that Washington has calibrated its moves given the tight race. A new sanction under the Magnitsky Act, for example, could have electoral effects unfavorable to Flávio Bolsonaro, these officials believe.
The candidate’s allies in the U.S. are trying to sell the opposite message. His brother, former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, was in Washington last week to ask in meetings at the State Department and the White House not only for the reinstatement of Magnitsky sanctions against Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes, but also for Justices Flávio Dino and Gilmar Mendes to be added to the list of targets.
Against this backdrop, Lula will take the General Assembly podium for the 10th time as president. Brazil has opened the annual debate since 1955.
The speeches will come amid a perception among Brazilian officials that there has been a global retreat on peace and security, sustainable development, and human rights. The assessment is that this diagnosis will run through the statements of different countries, but the causes identified and solutions advocated will vary.
In the case of Brazil and the U.S., Brazilian sources expect the contrast to be particularly clear. “You will inevitably have two different views of the international order,” a federal government official said. Santos expects Lula to defend multilateralism and portray Brazil as a responsible player on major global issues, while Trump is likely to take a “much more nationalist and transactional” approach.
Lula himself has previewed that he intends to deliver a speech about “the world.” Topics he has mentioned include the global economy, wars, representation on the UN Security Council, and what he called a “lack of leadership” to “make decisions.”
Trump, meanwhile, may return to his familiar criticism of international organizations and defend his legacy as a supposed “agent of peace,” Martins noted. “I don’t expect anything very different from what happened last year,” he said.
Still, Trump could mention his engagement with Latin American governments—a region that has rarely featured in recent speeches by U.S. presidents—particularly on combating drug trafficking, in cooperation that does not include Brazil. “It would also be a way for Trump to speak to his base,” Martins said.
Organized crime has gained greater prominence on the international agenda over the past year, which could justify Brazil addressing the issue. But the area, in which Brazil’s efforts came under criticism from the U.S. last week, is also seen as more favorable territory for Flávio Bolsonaro and potentially damaging to Lula.
“Lula may be tempted to use his speech to emphasize, in addition to Brazilian sovereignty, his discomfort with the ‘Donroe Doctrine,’ which has an interventionist character [toward Latin America by the U.S.],” Gedan said.
If Lula and Trump cross paths again behind the scenes, Gedan said another rapprochement is possible despite all the tariffs and diplomatic tensions.
The two governments have kept dialogue open in an effort to resolve the sweeping tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Brazilian products, but officials at the presidential palace do not expect results in the short term and believe Washington will avoid concessions that could be portrayed as a victory for Lula ahead of the election. Two tariffs, one of 25% and another of 12.5%, have been imposed on Brazilian products.
Brazilian government sources believe the U.S. is taking a unilateral approach and using tariffs not only as a tool to exert pressure but also as an instrument of economic and industrial policy. As a result, even a greater willingness by Brazil to make concessions would not guarantee the removal of the tariffs. If Lula wins, officials expect Trump to take a pragmatic approach, but they believe relations with the U.S. will be the biggest challenge for Brazilian foreign policy from 2027 onward.
