Out of town report #28: Lula bilat

POTUS opened up his bilat with Lula at 3:45pm for a 9-minute exchange that left Lula increasingly frustrated and eager to move onto the private portion of their meeting.

POTUS:

"It's a great honor to be with the President of Brazil - a great country. It's a big, beautiful country"

"I think we'll be able to do some pretty good deals we've been speaking, and I think we'll end up having a very good relationship."

Lula mentioned he brought his agenda in writing and in English to discuss.

Q Will you reduce tariffs on Brazil?

POTUS "we'll be discussing it for a little while. We know we know each other. We know what each other wants."

POTUS praised Bolsonaro in front of Lula: “I’ve always liked him. I’ve always liked him. I feel very badly about what happened to him. I’ve always thought he was a straight shooter but he’s been through a lot, he’s been through a lot.”

But when asked if he plans to discuss Bolsonaro with Lula today, he responded: "None of your business"

Q Besides Bolsonaro, is there anything that Brazil could offer that could improve relations with the U.S.?

"Probably. We'll know in 15 minutes. They can offer a lot and we can offer a lot."

When Lula complained that they were wasting time by talking to the media, POTUS responded, "The media don't even have to take that long time"

Sophia Cai

White House Reporter

POLITICO

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