MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump receives Bolsonaro for dinner at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort

Trump on Friday told reporters Bolsonaro “wanted to have dinner.” The meeting is expected to be closed to the press without any public statements

US President Donald Trump will meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Florida on Saturday to discuss trade, infrastructure, Venezuela and the Middle East, the White House said in a statement on Friday.

Trump, who had announced the weekend meeting while speaking to reporters at the White House earlier on Friday, said the two would have dinner at the Republican president's Mar-a-Lago resort but offered few other details.

The meeting comes roughly one year after Trump hosted Bolsonaro, who shares his brand of conservative, populist politics, at the White House, where they had an easy rapport. Sources had earlier said the meeting was in the works, and Brazilian sources revealed that Bolsonaro said he was “called” by Trump.

Trump on Friday told reporters Bolsonaro “wanted to have dinner.” The meeting is expected to be closed to the press without any public statements, two other sources said.

A preliminary schedule for Bolsonaro's U.S. visit had shown the conservative Brazilian president would be in Florida from Saturday to Tuesday, including a meeting with a senior U.S. military official, an investor seminar and visit to a plant run by Brazilian plane-maker Embraer SA.

The United States and Brazil - the Western Hemisphere's two largest economies - had been embroiled in a trade spat over U.S. metal tariffs. But Bolsonaro in December said Trump had told him there would be no new U.S. tariffs on Brazilian steel and aluminum.

Both leaders won their offices with campaigns promising to overturn the political establishment, with Trump winning the White House in 2016 and Bolsonaro winning his election in 2018. The two met at the White House in March 2019.