California Governor Gavin Newsom found himself at the center of an international dust-up this week after publicly rebuking President Donald Trump over newly imposed tariffs on Brazil — tariffs that Newsom characterized as a diplomatic insult and economic blunder.
Speaking from São Paulo at a Milken Institute event ahead of the COP30 climate summit, Newsom accused Trump of giving Brazil “the middle finger” by levying a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports, despite the country’s status as a key U.S. trading partner. “We’re in Brazil. One of our great trading partners. One of the world’s great democracies,” Newsom said, visibly frustrated. “Instead, middle finger with 50 percent tariffs. That’s shameful.”
The outburst, seemingly off-script, captured a growing divide not only between U.S. climate policy factions, but also within its broader geopolitical posture. Newsom — who has styled himself as a kind of subnational climate envoy — noted that the United States did not send a single representative, not even “a note taker,” to the high-level COP30 meetings in Belém, hosted by Brazil’s left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Gov. Newsom blasts Trump administration for skipping climate conference in Brazil.
“This is the country we should be engaging,” Newsom said at event this morning. “Instead, middle finger with 50% tariffs. That’s shameful.”https://t.co/C0r7L66fAn pic.twitter.com/G3kMEq8dJA
— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) November 11, 2025
Though absent from the summit, Trump was very much present in the discourse. In July, the president signed an executive order identifying Brazil as a national security threat, citing the controversial imprisonment of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and ongoing judicial crackdowns led by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. That move, which imposed the sweeping tariff, was framed by Trump as a stand for political freedom and against authoritarian overreach — a rare intersection of trade policy and human rights rhetoric.
Bolsonaro, a conservative populist and close ally of Trump during his presidency, has been sentenced to 27 years in prison by Brazil’s top court for what it termed “crimes against democracy.” The case has drawn criticism from international observers who question the due process involved, especially under Justice de Moraes, whose aggressive pursuit of political opponents has raised alarms about judicial overreach in Latin America’s largest democracy.
Newsom, however, took a different view — prioritizing economic ties and environmental cooperation over the internal politics of Brazil. He praised the country as a vital partner in the global fight against climate change, pointing to its reserves of rare earth minerals and the Amazon rainforest’s strategic environmental importance.
Despite speculation — particularly from the international press — about his own presidential ambitions, Newsom deflected questions about a White House bid, saying his focus is on helping Democrats retake the House in 2026. Still, his prominence on the world stage, coupled with his vocal criticism of Trump’s foreign policy, signals a growing role for the California governor in Democratic foreign affairs discourse.
As for Trump, his decision to skip the summit altogether — and slap Brazil with a punitive tariff — underscores his broader foreign policy shift: less multilateralism, more targeted leverage. To Trump’s supporters, the tariffs represent justified retaliation against a judiciary engaged in political persecution. To critics like Newsom, it’s an abandonment of diplomacy at a time when global engagement is crucial.
