The TOI correspondent from Washington: If you think ties between the US and India are shaky, the diplomatic world is shuddering at developments between Washington and Brasília. In a profession where glad-handling and bear hugs, pomp and ceremony, communiques and agreements are the routine between friendly countries, the United States and Brazil have stumbled into a more theatrical mode: ambassadorial brinkmanship.The latest act in this diplomatic telenovela came on Tuesday when the Trump administration revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to Washington, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, insisting it was merely “reciprocity” after the Lula government declined to promptly approve the US choice for ambassador to Brasília, former Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez. Washington says Brazil is deliberately dragging its feet until the country’s October presidential election; Brasília counters that the US jumped the diplomatic gun by announcing its nominee before completing the customary agrement process and that the Vienna Convention specifies no deadline for approving ambassadors.The result is diplomacy by red card — in this case denial of visas and ambassadorial appointments, and bruised egos rather than battered bodies. The State Department says Ambassador Viotti’s visa will magically reappear the moment Brazil waves through Perez. Brazil calls the move ideological bullying – the sort of partisan preference Trump has displayed elsewhere, including his recent comments on Indian leadership. Somewhere, generations of diplomats raised on discreet non-partisanship must be wondering if they should have embraced mudwrestling instead.The spat has deeper roots than paperwork and protocol. Brazil recently denied visas to senior US officials whom it accused of planning to cast doubt on the integrity of its electoral system ahead of a fiercely contested presidential election. Washington insists the officials were conducting legitimate diplomatic work; Brasília says they were attempting to influence domestic politics in favor of the Bolsonaro camp.The allegations and counters touch on a recurring theme of Trump’s second administration: a muscular willingness in MAGA-era Washington to insert itself into the domestic politics of other nations. Hungary’s Viktor Orban has long enjoyed enthusiastic political support from Trump and his allies, while Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei has been embraced as a kindred ideological spirit. Elsewhere, conservative movements in Europe and Latin America have found sympathetic MAGA ears. Whether this activism has produced durable foreign-policy gains is another matter. In Buenos Aires, ideological warmth between Trump and Milei has strengthened bilateral political ties, though Argentina’s economic fortunes remain shaky. Hungary became one of Washington’s favorite conservative reference points, but MAGA endorsements did little to save Orban from defeat. In Brazil, meanwhile, analysts say highly visible support for Jair Bolsonaro and his son Flavio may have the opposite of its intended effect by allowing Lula to campaign as the defender of Brazilian sovereignty against foreign interference.The dispute also illustrates what critics describe as the Trump administration’s “take-no-prisoners” approach to diplomacy. The operating principle often appears to be that reciprocity means immediate retaliation, tariffs are a negotiating language rather than a last resort, sanctions are conversation starters, and compromise is what happens after the other side blinks first. Adding to the impression that traditional diplomacy occupies only a modest corner of the administration’s worldview has been a series of awkward international flubs such as the recent misidentification of African countries. All this echoes Trump’s visible disdain for “third world” countries, reinforcing perceptions that geography is an optional subject in the MAGA curriculum. For diplomats who spend careers memorizing protocol, precedence and pronunciation, such moments can induce collective palpitations. Conservative pundits maintain none of this means Washington lacks interests overseas; on the contrary, Trump’s foreign policy has been intensely international – but with a distinctly domestic flavor. Trade disputes, immigration, ideological allies, election integrity and economic leverage are frequently viewed through the prism of “America First.” Traditional alliance management often comes second.Brazil is now the latest country on which this philosophy is being tested. Tariffs have already landed despite the U.S enjoying a trade surplus with Brazil, visa denials have been answered with visa revocations, and ambassadorial appointments have become bargaining chips. While all this may be fascinating for students of diplomacy, it is exhausting for career diplomats, perhaps the first time that the Vienna Convention is reading less like a legal treaty and more like the script for a geopolitical sitcom.
