RIO DE JANEIRO, July 17. /TASS/. American voters elected Donald Trump to serve as US president, not as the emperor of the world, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in an interview with CNN.

"We can’t have President Trump forgetting that he was elected to govern the US, he was elected not to be the emperor of the world," he said through an interpreter.

The Brazilian leader said the US president is destroying bilateral relations that have existed for 200 years. Trump earlier announced he was introducing 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods from August 1.

"It would be much better to establish a negotiation first and then to reach a possible agreement," Lula da Silva said.

The Brazilian president previously warned that the country would respond tit-for-tat if the White House did not reverse its decision on tariffs.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected the criticism of the US president, saying he wasn’t trying to be the emperor of the world. She described him as a strong president of the US and the leader of the free world.