Brazil's Lula rejects Trump plan for Gaza and tariff threats as 'bravado'

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to take over the Gaza Strip, and dismissed his expansionist ambitions and tariff threats against trading partners as "bravado".

"No country, no matter how important, can fight the entire world all the time," the Brazilian leader said in an interview with local radio stations when asked about Trump.

Trump on Tuesday proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza to create a "Riviera of the Middle East" after resettling Palestinians elsewhere, sparking criticism from international powers.

"It makes no sense ... Where would Palestinians live? This is something incomprehensible to any human being," Lula said, defending a two-state solution and repeating earlier denunciations of Israel's military action in Gaza as "genocide".

"Palestinians are the ones who need to take care of Gaza," he added.

Trump's Gaza plan builds on his recent expansionist aims. He has raised the possibility of taking back the Panama Canal, proposed the U.S. wrest Greenland from Denmark and repeatedly suggested that Canada should be absorbed as the 51st U.S. state.

At the same time, he has threatened Canada and Mexico with economic penalties, imposed tariffs on China and threatened other trade partners with tariffs, including the European Union and the BRICS group of major emerging markets.

"The United States needs the world too. It should live in harmony with Brazil, Mexico, China. No one can live on bravado all the time, making threats all the time," Lula said.

Trump last week warned BRICS nations, a bloc that Brazil founded along with Russia, India and China, not to replace the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency, repeating a tariff threat.

"We have the right to discuss establishing trade ways that do not make us fully dependent on the dollar," said Lula, who had previously vowed to reciprocate if Trump decides to impose tariffs on Brazil.

The United States has run a trade surplus with Brazil since 2008, which reached $253 million last year on more than $80 billion of bilateral trade.