President Donald Trump has offered the nation’s ‘full and complete support’ to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro despite his rejecting international aid to stop raging Amazon fires and his feud with French President Emanuel Macron.
Macron on Monday fumed that Bolsonaro insulted the appearance of his wife, Brigitte, during a G7 summit meeting in Biarritz where Macron threatened to hit back at Brazil on trade and assembled a $20 million package to help fight raging Amazon forest fires.
Bolsonaro has rejected the proposed firefighting aid, and is demanding that Macron retract his comments.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has come under fire for failing to stem the raging Amazon fires. He is demanding an apology from French President Macron after insulting Macron’s wife
‘I have gotten to know President @jairBolsonaro well in our dealings with Brazil,’ Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, vouching for Bolsonaro just a day after engaging in a public hug with his G7 host, Macron.
‘He is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil – Not easy. He and his country have the full and complete support of the USA!’
Trump took heat for skipping a meeting at the recently concluded G7 summit in France about global warming. Trump was represented by an empty chair at the meeting. He said he was meeting with two other world leaders, but both of them were in fact at the meeting.
In talking up Bolsonaro, Trump sided with a right-wing leader who has been severely criticized for not doing enough to stop the fires, many of which are deliberately set by ranchers seeking to clear land.
Even as the Amazon fires become a global concern, Bolsonaro rejected the assistance proposal arranged by Macron, comparing it to colonial domination of the former Portugese territory.
Macron blasted Bolsonaro’s ‘disrespectful comments towards my wife’
President Donald Trump endorsed Bolsonaro’s response to the fires and pledged ‘full and complete’ US support
Bolsonaro, pictured with his wife, has shared or made several controversial posts on social media in recent weeks including retweeted a video showing violent yellow-vest protests in France headlined ‘Macron is an idiot’, calling it ‘a message’ to the French leader, on Friday
Mr Macron (left, wife Brigitte) said Bolsonaro’s (right) comments were ‘extraordinarily rude’, adding: ‘What can I say? It’s sad. It’s sad for him firstly, and for Brazilians’
A fire burns along the road to Jacunda National Forest, near the city of Porto Velho in the Vila Nova Samuel region which is part of Brazil’s Amazon on Monday
Asked whether the response came from Bolsonaro (pictured with wife Michelle) himself, a spokesman for Brazil’s presidential palace refused to comment
It comes after a Bolsonaro supporter posted this meme mocking Brigitte Macron, 66, and comparing her unfavourably with Brazil’s first lady 37-year-old Michelle Bolsonaro. It says: ‘Now you understand why Macron is persecuting Bolsonaro?’ The far-right Brazilian leader replied: ‘Do not humiliate the guy, ha ha,’ referring to Mr Macron
‘He had extremely disrespectful comments towards my wife,’ Macron said Monday. ‘What can I tell you? It’s sad. It’s sad for him and for Brazilians. I think that Brazilian women are probably ashamed to read that their president has done that.’
A user had posted on Bolsonaro’s Facebook page comparing Brigitte Macron, 66, to Bolsonaro’s wife Michelle, 37, and suggesting Macron was envious. ‘Don’t humiliate the guy … haha,’ Bolsonaro’s account replied.
It had the tagline: ‘Now you understand why Macron is persecuting Bolsonaro?’
Bolsonaro has said he will only accept an offer of international aid for fighting fires in the Amazon if French leader Emmanuel Macron ‘withdraws insults’ made against him.
Bolsonaro said Tuesday: ‘Before speaking or accepting anything from France, even if it comes from the best possible intentions, he must retract his words. Then we can talk.’
Bolsonaro said his French counterpart had called him a liar, and accused him of questioning Brazil’s sovereignty amid tensions over devastating fires sweeping the Amazon region.
Macron had earlier called the Brazilian leader ‘extraordinarily rude.’
Bolsonaro’s chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni fired back at Macron: ‘We appreciate (the offer), but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe.
‘Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site,’ he added, referencing the fire that tore through the roof of Notre Dame. ‘What does he intend to teach our country?’
Bolsonaro tweeted: ‘We cannot accept that a President, Macron, issues inappropriate and gratuitous attacks against the Amazon. Nor that he disguises his intentions behind an ‘alliance’ of the G-7 countries to ‘save’ the Amazon, as if it were a colony or no man’s land.’
Trump’s statement that Bolsonaro was ‘working very hard’ on the fires, comes after the president refused at a press conference to say whether he still doubts the science of climate change. Bolsonaro is also a climate change skeptic.
Bolsonaro campaigned on opening up the Amazon region to development, and has been hammered abroad and at home for failing to do more to stem the fires.