I see the Trump appeasers are still at it, praising India’s “powerful independent, principled self-interest” and hoping this will lead to the Brics bloc “aligning more closely to the West and democratic values” (“No cracks, but quiet revolution”, July 20).
This in a week in which Donald Trump slapped 50% tariffs on Brazil for having the temerity to prosecute former president Jair Bolsonaro for plotting a coup against democracy. Trump deemed it “a witch hunt”, demanded that Brazil leave him alone, and said the trial justified the tariffs.
Among the evidence arraigned against Bolsonaro: a comprehensive 884-page police report outlining an assassination plot against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and others (code name Green & Yellow Dagger), audio and video evidence of meetings between Bolsonaro and senior military officials, a plan circulated among top generals to suspend judicial power, plea deals from senior commanders confirming Bolsonaro’s role in drafting the plot and the judicial plan, along with testimony confirming coup discussions at the presidential palace.
One of Bolsonaro’s more imaginative defences in the trial has been that “conversations about ‘alternatives’ postelection are constitutional”. So these are the Western democratic values with which we should be aligning? Trump’s fondness for autocrats is well-known.
What would be the response of your readers if he started to demand of SA that we “leave Jacob Zuma alone” or that “the cases against Anoj Singh, Brian Molefe et al are a witch hunt”, and threatened us with higher tariffs if prosecutions were not withdrawn? Would they be so keen to bend the knee?
Simon Rhoades
Vredehoek
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