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AMNA NAWAZ: Today, President 
Trump welcomed Brazilian 
President Jair Bolsonaro for an

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official visit to 
the White House.

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Bolsonaro has been dubbed the 
Trump of the Tropics because 
of the rhetoric and policies

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the two leaders share.

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As Nick Schifrin reports, the 
two presidents are now trying 
to overcome more than three

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decades of Brazilian suspicion 
of the United States.

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DONALD TRUMP, President of 
the United States: We're 
going to exchange jerseys.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: Today at the 
White House, the leaders of the 
Western Hemisphere's two largest

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economies declared themselves 
on the same team and allied 
in a new North-South American

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axis.

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DONALD TRUMP: We're 
going to have a fantastic 
working relationship.

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We have many views 
that are similar.

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JAIR BOLSONARO, Brazilian 
President (through translator): 
Brazil and the United States

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stand side by side in 
their efforts to ensure 
liberties, respect for 
the traditional family,

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respect for God, our 
creator, against gender 
ideology and political 
correctness and against

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fake news.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: Jair Bolsonaro 
is the first unabashedly 
pro-American Brazilian president

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since the end of military rule 
in the 1980s, and made the U.S. 
his first bilateral foreign

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visit.

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JAIR BOLSONARO (through 
translator): It is 
time to overcome old 
resistance and explore

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the very best potential 
that is there between 
Brazil and the U.S.

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After all, it is fair to say, 
today, Brazil has a president 
who is not anti-American,

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which is really unprecedented 
in the last few decades.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: The 
Trump administration 
considers Bolsonaro a key 
conservative ally, especially

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on Venezuela, as the 
U.S. tries to oust 
President Nicolas Maduro.

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Maduro is propped up by his 
military, and the U.S. is 
trying to convince that military

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to give him up by using 
the Brazilian military 
as an interlocutor.

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As part of today's visit, 
Brazil agreed to open a military 
base to U.S. satellites.

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The two sides are increasing 
trade agreements, and the U.S. 
labeled Brazil a major non-NATO

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ally.

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But those agreements were less 
important than what was said, 
argues "America's Quarterly"

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editor in chief Brian Winter.

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BRIAN WINTER, Editor in 
Chief, "American Quarterly": 
In Bolsonaro, you really 
have -- there's really

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no other leader anywhere in 
the world who has so openly 
tried to copy the Donald Trump

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model in terms of both 
substance and style.

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That was really what both 
leaders wanted, was, to a 
certain extent, some validation.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: Back home, 
supporters call Bolsonaro 
myth, a reference to the almost

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mythical status he achieved 
after surviving a campaign 
trail stabbing last September,

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and to his middle name, Messias.

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They elected him, a populist, 
to fight corruption, end 
the country's longest 
recession, and tackle

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endemic violence.

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But critics of the man 
dubbed Trump of the Tropics 
call him an extremist.

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In 2014, he argued with a 
lawmaker and, after pushing her, 
yelled, "I wouldn't rape you

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because you are 
not worthy of it."

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After he tried to shout down 
the female head of a commission 
investigating gender violence,

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fellow parliamentarians 
forced him to leave, 
calling him a fascist.

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In a 2011 interview with 
"Playboy," he said he 
would rather his son 
die in a car accident

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than be gay.

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And right before his election, 
when calling in to a rally, 
Bolsonaro promised the rule

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of law would be become 
rule by law unleashed on 
his political opponents.

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JAIR BOLSONARO (through 
translator): These red 
outcasts will be banished 
from our homeland.

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It will be a cleansing never 
seen in Brazilian history.

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BRIAN WINTER: In Brazil's 
case, where they were still 
immersed in many respects in the

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worst recession in their 
history, a country with 
63,000 homicides per 
year, with a massive

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corruption scandal, a lot of 
voters heard those kinds of 
comments and thought, aha,

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this is a guy who is going 
to do things differently in 
Brasilia, in the capital.

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And so that's why 
he's in office.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: But Bolsonaro 
faces some internal resistance 
in aligning Brazil to the U.S.

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Brazil has not followed 
the U.S. lead in moving 
its embassy to Jerusalem.

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Brazil has not left the 
Paris climate accords.

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And Brazil is among the West's 
most protectionist countries, 
and could oppose opening up the

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country to more U.S. trade.

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But President Trump is 
focusing on his personal 
connection with Bolsonaro, 
and the administration

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called today a historic step 
toward realigning two countries 
whose leaders' world views are

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themselves aligned.

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For the "PBS NewsHour," 
I'm Nick Schifrin.