Brazil’s Supreme Court has decided to place former president Jair Bolsonaro under house arrest. The decision comes in connection with the ongoing trial where Bolsonaro is accused of attempting to overturn the election results after his loss in the 2022 presidential election.
The case has already triggered diplomatic tensions with the US, after President Donald Trump called the legal process a “witch hunt” and responded by imposing 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian goods – the highest tariff the US currently applies against any country.
It was the heavily criticized judge Alexandre de Moraes at Brazil’s Supreme Court who on Monday made the decision that Bolsonaro should be placed under house arrest. According to the ruling, he is prohibited from using mobile phones and receiving visitors, with the exception of his legal team and persons approved by the court.
The background to the decision is that Bolsonaro has violated previous legal restrictions. According to Moraes, he used his three sons’ social media accounts to spread messages that, according to the judge, “clearly encourage and incite attacks against the federal Supreme Court and openly support foreign intervention in the Brazilian judicial system”.
Last week, US President Donald Trump accused the Brazilian government of human rights violations and unfair treatment of Bolsonaro. In connection with this, he imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods. According to Trump, the measure is a response to the legal process he describes as politically motivated.

Trump has also previously threatened an additional ten percent in tariffs directed at member countries in the BRICS cooperation, which includes Brazil. He has accused the bloc of trying to undermine the US dollar’s role as the global reserve currency – a claim that BRICS has rejected, citing that it is the US’s own political decisions that weaken the dollar.
Lula: American coup
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has condemned Trump’s actions. During a Workers’ Party event in Brasília on Sunday, he accused the US of using Brazil’s internal legal processes as a pretext for imposing sanctions and stated that the US has already “helped stage a coup in the country”.
He continued by warning that the US wants to “end multilateral cooperation” and return to “country-to-country deals where the big dominate the small”.
Lula also emphasized that Brazil is no longer economically dependent on the US:
– I’m not going to give up on the idea that we need to build an alternative currency to be able to trade with other countries. I don’t need to remain subordinate to the dollar, he added.