2025-08-13
7 分钟Welcome to Editor's Picks. I'm Charlotte Howard.
I'm the co-host of our American podcast, Checks and Balance.
You are about to hear an article we have chosen from the most recent edition of The Economist.
Thanks for tuning in.
On July 17th, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio,
dispatched a memorandum to America's diplomats stepping back from a decades-old priority,
promoting democracy abroad.
Henceforth, he wrote,
diplomats should simply congratulate the winning candidate in any country's election and refrain from opining on the fairness of the process or even on the democratic values of the country in question.
The change he wrote was in keeping with the administration's emphasis on national sovereignty.
The president apparently did not get the memo.
That same day,
Donald Trump posted on social media a letter he sent to the former president of Brazil,
Jair Bolsonaro, who faces charges of plotting a coup to overturn an election he lost in 2022.
Mr Trump, who identifies with Mr Bolsonaro as a fellow strongman who idolises Donald Trump,
bemoaned his terrible treatment by an unjust system.
He went on to attack Brazil's democratic values,
accusing its government of a ridiculous censorship regime.
And Mr Trump did not stop at mere opining.
About two weeks later, citing the prosecution of Mr Bolsonaro,