'Unheard of': Trump's bizarre use of tariffs alarms national security expert

President Donald Trump's new way to use tariffs has alarmed one national security expert, according to a new report.

Experts have said Trump uses the threat of tariffs to extract concessions from countries that have a trade surplus with the United States. However, it appears that Trump has invented a new way to use tariffs to protect his foreign allies.

Trump placed 50% tariffs on Brazil, although the deal left out some major imports like airplane parts and orange juice, according to media reports. As part of the deal, Trump said he would not lift the tariffs unless the Brazilian Supreme Court stopped prosecuting former president Jair Bolsonaro, a staunch Trump supporter who attempted a coup after he lost the 2022 election.

The way Trump has used tariffs in Brazil alarmed his former national security advisor, John Bolton.

“It’s almost unheard of,” Bolton told The Washington Post. “What Trump does is meld tariffs with other issues, which in principle is not necessarily a bad thing, but you have to look at your overall relations with a country, and there is, as we used to say in the Cold War, a linkage with issues. But the way Trump has done it is just an ad hoc kind of thing.”

Thomas Shannon, a former U.S. ambassador to Brazil, told the outlet that he doubted the strategy would yield meaningful results for Trump.

“People who are familiar with Brazil would have told them that the way [Trump] was doing this was actually going to jeopardize Jair Bolsonaro and the people around him and enhance the ability of the Lula government … to recover politically from what seemed like a slow and inevitable decline," Shannon said.

Read the entire report by clicking here.