German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met on Monday as part of Germany’s efforts to break from the United States and form a new economic bloc.

• The meeting followed the world’s largest industrial fair in Germany on Sunday, which featured Brazil as its official partner country. It also arrived just before the EU-Latin America mercosur agreement, strongly supported by both Brazil and Germany, comes into provisional effect on May 1.

The two sides announced that they would work together to buy military equipment and that they reached 12 other agreements in areas including quantum computing, critical minerals, artificial intelligence and climate research.

• The Brazilian president, in a press conference after the discussions, said the two nations will also work on “digital infrastructure such as data centers” to cut dependence on foreign companies, likely meaning American ones.

Merz said he “wholeheartedly endorses” doubling Germany and Brazil’s trade volume in the coming years. Ties between the two nations have never been more necessary, he said, as the “world order is undergoing such fundamental changes.”

• By stating the world order is fundamentally changing and presenting such alliances as a solution, Merz is essentially calling on countries like Brazil to ally with Europe and, ultimately, to create a new trade bloc to replace the United States.

Merz criticized the U.S., stating that it has no justification for attacking Cuba, a sentiment the Brazilian leader echoed. He also claimed the Iran war is jeopardizing “economic development around the world.” Clearly, neither leader is fond of America.

The Trumpet’s predecessor, the Plain Truth, warned in 1962 that “the United States is going to be left out in the cold as two gigantic trade blocs, Europe and Latin America, mesh together and begin calling the shots in world commerce. The United States is going to be literally besieged—economically—frozen out of world trade!”

The results of Monday’s meeting and the subsequent comments from Brazil’s and Germany’s leaders show that those two blocs are meshing now, fueled by noticeable anti-American sentiment.