RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – US President Donald Trump confirmed he will have dinner with his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro this Saturday at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The announcement was made during a press conference at the White House, which had the US government’s plans for the coronavirus as its central point.
“We’re having dinner in Mar-a-Lago. He wanted to have dinner in Florida,” Trump said in the interview.
Trump “will use the meeting as an opportunity to thank Brazil for its close alliance with the United States,” the White House said in a later statement. The two leaders will discuss “opportunities to build a more prosperous, safe and democratic world,” focusing on issues such as the crisis in Venezuela, the Middle East, trade policies and infrastructure investments, according to the statement.
Trump’s agenda provided for his departure to Florida later on Friday, after a visit to areas affected by a tornado in the state of Tennessee. He was expected to fly to Atlanta, where the CDC, the US Centre for Disease Control is based, but that engagement was cancelled – on Friday, he signed a bill to release US$8 billion to fight the coronavirus in the country. In addition to his regular golf outings and dinner with Bolsonaro in Mar-a-Lago, Trump is expected to attend events of his reelection campaign.
Informally called the “Winter White House,” the Mar-a-Lago resort is located in a reserved area of Palm Beach, Florida and was completed in 1927. A few decades later, in 1985, it was purchased by Donald Trump for US$10 million and converted into a luxury resort for members and their guests – the basic price to become a member is US$200,000, entitling admission to the club’s facilities and possibly bumping into the President, a frequent visitor to the property.
Since taking office in 2017, there have been 29 visits, costing the country’s taxpayers approximately US$133 million, according to a survey on the Huffington Post website in February. The costs include the Secret Service agents’ daily expenses and even the bills left by the President’s advisors at the resort bar.
In addition to his golf course shots, Trump likes to welcome foreign guests to the property. The first was Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe in 2017. In the same year, Chinese President Xi Jinping also stayed in Mar-a-Lago.
Bolsonaro, who is a declared admirer of the Republican President, has already met Trump during his state visit to the United States in March 2019 and at the G20 summit in Japan in June last year. The two met briefly during the UN General Assembly in September 2019 in New York when the Brazilian told the American: “I love you”.
Agreements and electric cars
The dinner confirmation with Trump can be viewed as the highlight of President Bolsonaro’s trip to the US, the third in just over a year in office. The meeting began to be put together last year after a conversation between Chancellor Ernesto Araújo and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Colombia.
The invitation to visit the US came from the Republican Senator for Florida, Rick Scott, and bilateral agreements in areas such as technology, investment and defense are expected to be signed. On Monday, March 9th, a business forum will also take place in Miami.
A bilateral agreement will also be signed in the area of defense, a kind of authorization for joint plans, such as Brazil’s performance as an extra-NATO ally of the US. The signing should take place on Sunday, during Bolsonaro’s visit to the US Southern Command headquarters, where he will meet with US Navy Admiral Craig Faller.
On Thursday, at a Senate hearing, Brazilian Chancellor Ernesto Araujo expressed his doubts about the continued good relationship with the White House should Trump be defeated in the November presidential election.
“We are obviously following with interest this American electoral reality, this electoral process. But we are working with President Trump’s government, with whom we have created so many new opportunities. Let’s see the outcome of the election. Obviously, if President Trump is re-elected, we will certainly continue along this very promising line. Otherwise, we will see,” said Araújo.
Establishing a closer contact with representatives of electric car manufacturer Tesla is another aspiration of the Brazilian government. Bolsonaro said two weeks ago that he would like to bring the company to Brazil, with the potential construction of a production plant, but nothing is official yet. Tesla, which is currently one of the leaders in the sector, has plants in the USA, Germany and China.
Its president, Elon Musk, has not mentioned the subject either. He was called a “genius” by Donald Trump, but politically he would be more in line with the Democrats. Last year, he even endorsed the party’s then-candidate to the presidency, Andrew Yang, who has already left the race.
On Wednesday, in a meeting with the President of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, Sergio Massa, Bolsonaro said that the Argentine government “can count on him” to intercede for Argentina with Trump.
“He was willing to help Argentina and said he will talk about it in his meeting with the US President,” Massa told GLOBO.