Lula's comeback in Brazil dents Trump's ambitions for Latin America

"Brazil will not accept being anyone's backyard," Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared in his election victory speech, a message squarely aimed at Washington. Domestic elections are rarely won on foreign policy, and this one was no different. But Lula's defiance against what he has described as US interference in Brazilian affairs evoked a patriotic spirit that proved an effective campaigning tool. It also chimed with his wider brand of politics as a former union leader: standing up to powerful figures. Paradoxically, it seems to have earned him President Donald Trump's respect. "I like Lula, we get along well," Trump said, responding to the result. "I didn't take sides," he added, before calling the election "terrible" and "rigged". This video can not be played Watch: How President Lula turned it around to beat Flávio Bolsonaro If that sounds muddled, it is because the relationship between the two men is not straightforward. Trump did not explicitly endorse Lula's rival Flávio Bolsonaro, who refused to recognise the result. But Trump was a close ally of Flávio's father, the former President Jair Bolsonaro. When I spoke to Lula at his residence about a year ago, relations had hit rock bottom. He told me he had "no relationship" with Trump, that they had never spoken, and that he had no intention of picking up the phone. Trump had recently imposed punitive tariffs on Brazil, largely as a political response to Jair Bolsonaro's coup trial, which the US president called a "witch-hunt". Rather than tiptoeing around Trump, as some US allies did, Lula fought back – and it paid off. He made fiery speeches invoking Brazilian sovereignty, attacked US interference in the judicial process, and took to wearing a blue cap reading "Brazil belongs to Brazilians". He accused the Bolsonaro family, who had lobbied for the tariffs, of being unpatriotic – a blow to a political right that so often claims patriotism as its terrain. Even some in the agricultural lobby, typically strong Bolsonaro supporters but reliant on US trade, thought Lula had a point. The US eventually backed down and reduced the tariffs, although they have since risen again. The two men spoke at the United Nations and later met in the Oval Office, where Trump called the talks "very good" and Lula said he left "very satisfied". Another indication, perhaps, that Trump likes a strong leader. Fireworks heard after Lula's victory in São Paulo So why might Trump be unhappy with the result?