U.S. President Donald Trump may have thought that pressuring Brazil with higher tariffs would help his ally, the country's former President Jair Bolsonaro, but the move apparently backfired. Last week,

Trump announced a sweeping 50 percent tariff on all Brazilian exports to the United States beginning Aug. 1. In a letter to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the left-wing leader who defeated Jair Bolsonaro three years ago,

Trump twinned his threat to Brazil with the promise of a 50% tariff on copper, which would strike at the economic lifeline of two more Southern neighbors, Chile and Peru. The president capped his week by setting a 30% tariff on Mexican imports as of Aug. 1.