President Donald Trump has publicly criticized the Brazil election. He called the elecion a “disgrace” only days after his ally Flávio Bolsonaro lost the presidential run-off to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Trump spoke on Thursday, a day after Bolsonaro landed in Florida.
Donald Trump’s reaction to Lula’s victory over Flávio Bolsonaro
A reporter asked Donald Trump about the Brazil election on Thursday morning. The U.S. president did not say whether he accepts the result, but he did not hold back on how the contest looked to him.
“I thought the election was a great embarrassment to the people of Brazil,” he said. Trump insisted he stayed neutral during the campaign. “I didn’t take sides. I let it be. I was asked not to take sides by the president, the current president,” he said.
He then turned to the financial markets. “But when I watched what went down in Brazil, it was a disgrace… just take a look at the market, I mean their market went down through the floor,” Trump said. The numbers back up part of that claim. The Brazilian real lost 12 percent against the dollar in spot trading after the vote. Lula won Sunday’s run-off by more than four million ballots.
The U.S. president’s comments came as Flávio Bolsonaro settled into Miami. The New York Times reported that Trump’s White House helped the former senator and his family leave Brazil, and that officials expect Washington to offer them permanent residency.
The trip began after Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro to hand over his passports. Judges wanted him available for an investigation into alleged embezzlement and money laundering. He left at night regardless.
Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda, and their two daughters drove into Argentina, where President Javier Milei’s government had issued them visas. A small private plane then carried them to Ecuador, and from there to Miami.
After arriving, Bolsonaro declared himself “the true president-elect of Brazil” and dismissed the allegations as “a politically motivated witch-hunt.” His own Liberal Party had already said on Monday that it accepts the outcome.
