WEBVTT 00:01.900 --> 00:04.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% AMNA NAWAZ: Today, President Trump welcomed Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for an 00:04.200 --> 00:06.500 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% official visit to the White House. 00:06.500 --> 00:10.333 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Bolsonaro has been dubbed the Trump of the Tropics because of the rhetoric and policies 00:10.333 --> 00:12.433 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% the two leaders share. 00:12.433 --> 00:15.966 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% As Nick Schifrin reports, the two presidents are now trying to overcome more than three 00:15.966 --> 00:18.833 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% decades of Brazilian suspicion of the United States. 00:18.833 --> 00:21.533 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We're going to exchange jerseys. 00:21.533 --> 00:25.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Today at the White House, the leaders of the Western Hemisphere's two largest 00:25.000 --> 00:30.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% economies declared themselves on the same team and allied in a new North-South American 00:30.466 --> 00:32.433 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% axis. 00:32.433 --> 00:35.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% DONALD TRUMP: We're going to have a fantastic working relationship. 00:35.133 --> 00:37.533 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% We have many views that are similar. 00:37.533 --> 00:40.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JAIR BOLSONARO, Brazilian President (through translator): Brazil and the United States 00:40.700 --> 00:45.666 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% stand side by side in their efforts to ensure liberties, respect for the traditional family, 00:47.733 --> 00:50.800 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% respect for God, our creator, against gender ideology and political correctness and against 00:50.800 --> 00:52.800 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% fake news. 00:52.800 --> 00:56.300 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Jair Bolsonaro is the first unabashedly pro-American Brazilian president 00:56.300 --> 01:01.266 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% since the end of military rule in the 1980s, and made the U.S. his first bilateral foreign 01:01.733 --> 01:03.733 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% visit. 01:03.733 --> 01:06.433 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% JAIR BOLSONARO (through translator): It is time to overcome old resistance and explore 01:06.433 --> 01:10.433 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% the very best potential that is there between Brazil and the U.S. 01:10.433 --> 01:15.433 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% After all, it is fair to say, today, Brazil has a president who is not anti-American, 01:16.800 --> 01:19.100 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% which is really unprecedented in the last few decades. 01:19.100 --> 01:23.266 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: The Trump administration considers Bolsonaro a key conservative ally, especially 01:23.266 --> 01:26.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% on Venezuela, as the U.S. tries to oust President Nicolas Maduro. 01:26.700 --> 01:31.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Maduro is propped up by his military, and the U.S. is trying to convince that military 01:33.266 --> 01:36.533 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% to give him up by using the Brazilian military as an interlocutor. 01:36.533 --> 01:41.300 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% As part of today's visit, Brazil agreed to open a military base to U.S. satellites. 01:41.300 --> 01:46.266 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% The two sides are increasing trade agreements, and the U.S. labeled Brazil a major non-NATO 01:46.766 --> 01:48.900 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% ally. 01:48.900 --> 01:52.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% But those agreements were less important than what was said, argues "America's Quarterly" 01:52.000 --> 01:54.533 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% editor in chief Brian Winter. 01:54.533 --> 01:56.633 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% BRIAN WINTER, Editor in Chief, "American Quarterly": In Bolsonaro, you really have -- there's really 01:56.633 --> 02:00.600 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% no other leader anywhere in the world who has so openly tried to copy the Donald Trump 02:01.766 --> 02:04.766 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% model in terms of both substance and style. 02:04.766 --> 02:09.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% That was really what both leaders wanted, was, to a certain extent, some validation. 02:09.200 --> 02:14.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Back home, supporters call Bolsonaro myth, a reference to the almost 02:16.166 --> 02:19.800 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% mythical status he achieved after surviving a campaign trail stabbing last September, 02:20.666 --> 02:23.033 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% and to his middle name, Messias. 02:23.033 --> 02:27.033 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% They elected him, a populist, to fight corruption, end the country's longest recession, and tackle 02:27.766 --> 02:29.700 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% endemic violence. 02:29.700 --> 02:31.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% But critics of the man dubbed Trump of the Tropics call him an extremist. 02:31.933 --> 02:36.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% In 2014, he argued with a lawmaker and, after pushing her, yelled, "I wouldn't rape you 02:39.600 --> 02:41.733 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% because you are not worthy of it." 02:41.733 --> 02:46.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% After he tried to shout down the female head of a commission investigating gender violence, 02:46.033 --> 02:50.633 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% fellow parliamentarians forced him to leave, calling him a fascist. 02:50.633 --> 02:55.266 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% In a 2011 interview with "Playboy," he said he would rather his son die in a car accident 02:55.266 --> 02:57.366 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% than be gay. 02:57.366 --> 03:00.400 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And right before his election, when calling in to a rally, Bolsonaro promised the rule 03:00.400 --> 03:04.366 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% of law would be become rule by law unleashed on his political opponents. 03:04.366 --> 03:09.366 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% JAIR BOLSONARO (through translator): These red outcasts will be banished from our homeland. 03:10.800 --> 03:12.766 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% It will be a cleansing never seen in Brazilian history. 03:12.766 --> 03:17.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% BRIAN WINTER: In Brazil's case, where they were still immersed in many respects in the 03:19.466 --> 03:22.733 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% worst recession in their history, a country with 63,000 homicides per year, with a massive 03:24.766 --> 03:28.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% corruption scandal, a lot of voters heard those kinds of comments and thought, aha, 03:28.033 --> 03:32.533 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% this is a guy who is going to do things differently in Brasilia, in the capital. 03:32.533 --> 03:35.200 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% And so that's why he's in office. 03:35.200 --> 03:40.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: But Bolsonaro faces some internal resistance in aligning Brazil to the U.S. 03:42.200 --> 03:44.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Brazil has not followed the U.S. lead in moving its embassy to Jerusalem. 03:44.466 --> 03:46.700 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Brazil has not left the Paris climate accords. 03:46.700 --> 03:51.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And Brazil is among the West's most protectionist countries, and could oppose opening up the 03:51.200 --> 03:53.800 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% country to more U.S. trade. 03:53.800 --> 03:57.900 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% But President Trump is focusing on his personal connection with Bolsonaro, and the administration 03:57.900 --> 04:02.866 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% called today a historic step toward realigning two countries whose leaders' world views are 04:03.600 --> 04:04.800 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% themselves aligned. 04:04.800 --> 04:07.233 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.