Live updates: Trump meets Brazil's President Lula at White House – BBC
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday
They discussed Trump's tariffs on Brazilian goods and other economic matters, according to Trump, but did not appear together in front of the press
After lunch, Trump posted on social media that the meeting "went very well" and additional meetings between representatives would take place in coming months
Critical minerals were also believed to be on the agenda, with Lula saying Brazil welcomes investment from any country in that sector
The two leaders appear to have maintained the good rapport they established during a meeting in 2025, despite differing stances on a number of issues
Trump has a close relationship with Lula's predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, who has since been found guilty of planning a coup to stay in power
Edited by Oliver O'Connell and Lisa Lambert with reporting from Daniel Bush and BBC Brasil's Leandro Prazeres
US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, met at the White House today to discuss economic relations between both countries.
We expected both leaders to speak to the press following their meeting. That did not end up happening, shocking members of the press who had waited at the White House for hours.
Instead, our sign that the meeting had ended was Lula's motorcade driving away.
Trump posted on Truth Social soon after that the meeting, where the leaders discussed trade and tariffs, to say it "went very well", but provided few specifics. We have not heard more from the White House.
Speaking at the Brazilian embassy afterward, ministers from the Brazilian government told reporters that the three-hour meeting went "very well", calling the conversation between the two leaders positive and productive. They also said representatives from both countries will meet in the coming weeks to discuss an end to the US tariffs against Brazil.
Lula then told reporters in Portuguese that he spoke with Trump about creating a transnational group to counter drug trafficking and organised crime. He also said his country wants to share its critical rare earth minerals potential with any country that wants to invest in them, a possible sticking point with Trump.
When asked about the possibility of Trump influencing Brazil's elections, Lula said: "I don't think Trump will have any influence."
Trump is close with Lula's predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, and pushed the country hard to re-elect Bolsonaro, who is now in prison for attempting to stage a coup and remain in power, in the last election.
We're ending our live coverage now.
Car carrying Lula pulls away from White House
The two leaders did not appear as expected, but the White House released a series of photos of the their meeting after Lula left.
Brazil's president has just been asked if he and Trump discussed the US oil blockade on Cuba.
Lula says he told Trump he was willing to help with the situation. He adds that Cuba wants a dialogue and to find a solution with the US to bring the embargo to an end.
A US blockade on oil to Cuba has led to fuel shortages and widespread blackouts, impacting hospital wards, public transport and education.
In taking questions from reporters, Lula has been asked multiple times about his previous comments that Trump is acting like an "emperor" by trying to influence other countries.
He's asked if he thinks Trump will have an influence on Brazilian politics and the upcoming elections.
Lula says no.
"I don't think Trump will have any influence," he says.
We're now hearing about what may have been points of disagreement in today's meeting.
Lula says Brazil wants to share its critical minerals potential with whoever wants to invest in the country – whether they're from the US, China, Germany, Japan or Fance.
He invites anyone to help Brazil with mining, processing, and producing the wealth that the country's rare earths offer.
As we noted earlier, Brazil holds between 20% and 23% of the world's rare earth reserves, the second largest after China, by most estimates.
The US is seeking to build a stockpile of these minerals in an operation called Project Vault. And it wants to do it while minimising a reliance on China, making Brazil a tantalising option. Brazil, though, has not been in a rush to sign an agreement.
Lula also says the US has had a trade surplus of over $400bn dollars with Brazil over the last 15 years. And in the last year, Brazil had a deficit of $14bn with the United States, he adds.
Lula suggests setting up a working group to get the Brazilian and American trade representatives together in the next 30 days to discuss next steps.
The Brazilian president says he left the meeting with Trump feeling "very satisfied".
"It was an important meeting for both countries," he says.
Lula says he and Trump also spoke about drug trafficking and transnational crime.
The Brazilian president says the issue is important – and that he is willing to help establish a coalition of nations in Latin America that would be dedicated to combatting the trafficking of drugs and weapons.
Brazil's President Lula is now speaking to reporters in Portuguese.
He says that during his meeting with Trump, the two sides took an "important step" in consolidating the "historic" relationship between Brazil and the US.
He talks a bit about the history between the two countries, including that the US was Brazil's greatest trading partner throughout the entire 20th century.
He says the relationship between the two democratic countries is an example to the rest of the world.
Brazil's Executive Secretary for the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services, Marcio Elias Rosa, says the Brazilian delegation discussed with President Trump the state of tariffs against their country.
The US Trade Representative will be meeting again with Brazilian officials in the coming weeks to talk about an end to the current tariffs, Rosa says, speaking in Portuguese.
The press conference at the Brazilian embassy has started, and before we hear from President Lula, we're hearing from some ministers in the Brazilian government.
Speaking in Portuguese, they say the three-hour meeting went "very well" and conversations between the two leaders were positive and productive.
Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira says Trump and Lula discussed trade, tariffs, and cooperation in fighting transnational crime.
Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is about to speak at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington DC following his meeting with Donald Trump.
You can watch live at the link above and we will bring you key lines from what he has to say.
Adam Moyer
Reporting from the White House
A bit of a shocker here among the White House press corps after President Lula da Silva left his meeting with President Trump without being given that on-camera Oval Office experience we all expected, and that many foreign leaders are given.
What this signals about their bilateral meeting and how they interacted remains unclear, though Trump says the meeting ‘went very well’.
We expect to hear more from Brazil’s president in a news conference over at the Brazilian embassy in Washington sometime this afternoon.
Today was an odd waiting game. The daily White House schedule under this second Trump administration isn’t known to be very rigid — it’s common for events to start 20 or 30 minutes later than advertised.
But today we hit the three-hour mark from when we expected to go into the Oval Office and hear from them without receiving any guidance. Then, we learned Lula was heading out.
Here at the outdoor media area, we’ve spotted several senior Trump officials today including Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who gave an interview with Fox News this morning before ignoring shouts from a press gaggle.
Moments ago, I spotted Sebastian Gorka – President Trump’s counterterrorism czar – chaperoning a group of visitors.
“Mr. Gorka, BBC!” I shouted, hoping he’d take a spontaneous interview on the new US counterterrorism strategy.
He hesitated for a second, turned around, and told me hadn’t the time for an interview. He did hand me a gold-lettered business card before continuing on his way.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has left the White House after meeting there with President Trump today.
He departed without appearing for a photo opportunity, which we had been expecting. But Trump gave a positive assessment of the meeting in a post on Truth Social, saying it had gone "very well".
President Donald Trump just posted on Truth Social about his meeting with President Lula, calling the Brazilian leader "very dynamic".
"We discussed many topics, including Trade and, specifically, Tariffs. The meeting went very well. Our Representatives are scheduled to get together to discuss certain key elements," Trump writes.
He adds that there will be additional meetings over the coming months.
Those are the only details we've received from the White House to give us a sense of how the meeting went.
We're hearing now that the Brazilian press is leaving the White House.
Reporters have not been given any guidance on public statements to come from Trump or his team this afternoon.
Our BBC Brasil reporter tells us Brazilian President Lula is still expected to give a news conference later at the Brazilian embassy in Washington. 
Carl Nasman
Reporting from the White House
We and the assembled Brazilian media are still waiting for the two leaders to appear in the Oval Office. We expected to hear from them more than two hours ago.
In the meantime, we now know what's on the menu for the luncheon part of today's bilateral meeting.
It includes beef filet and a caramelised peach and honey panna cotta torte for dessert.
Trump and Lula have moved on to the lunch portion of today's meeting at the White House, a Brazilian official says.
We're still expecting both presidents to speak to the press at some point – we'll keep you updated when that happens.
Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu
Live reporter
US President Donald Trump is hosting his Brazilian counterpart President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the White House today.
The working visit follows months of tense relations between Washington and Brasilia over the past year.
Even though Lula arrived roughly two hours ago, the press has not been invited into the Oval Office to ask the leaders questions or take photos – leaving them in the dark about how the visit has been going.
On the table for discussion today are "economic and security matters of shared importance,” the White House says. They could possibly be discussing rare earth minerals or Brazil's Pix payment system.
We've written about the leaders' dispute over tariffs the Trump administration put on Brazil goods here. Lula, as well, spoke out against the US seizure of Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro.
Stay with us as we bring you updates from the meeting and analysis from our correspondents in Washington and Brazil.
The White House has informed reporters who had lined up to go into the Oval Office that they can disperse for now. Press is on standby and will be updated with any timing details.
We're not entirely sure what's going on behind those closed doors or what access press will have to the leaders, but we do know Lula arrived more than an hour ago.
Stick with us. We'll bring you the latest developments.
Reporters have been waiting for over an hour in the White House briefing room to see if they will be allowed to go into the Oval Office for Trump and Lula's meeting.
The two leaders were expected to speak to the press and possibly take some questions this morning, but reporters have so far not had word on access to the meeting.
Copyright © 2026 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.
