Trump Calls Brazil Election 'Rigged' Without Evidence After Lula Beats Bolsonaro
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the Brazilian election over the weekend looked “rigged,” without providing evidence, after leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro.
Lula won another term on Sunday, with the help of a large social media campaign that convinced Brazilians to reject his rival.
Speaking to the media, Trump said the vote “looked terrible” and “like another rigged election.”
“I didn't take sides,” Trump told reporters when asked for his thoughts. “Elections have to be indisputable, and it looked very bad to me.”
Bolsonaro initially refused to recognise Lula's victory, saying it was “impossible” to acknowledge the result and that the election should have been annulled. He has since said he would “organise the opposition.”
In a video post shared on social media on Monday, Bolsonaro added that he had been banned from leaving Brazil and had been “served a notice to surrender my passports.”
Bolsonaro is the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Trump welcomed Bolsonaro to the White House earlier this year, later calling him a “smart young man who loves his country, Brazil, very much.”
The Trump administration has hailed a recent wave of right-wing election victories across South America.
“In South America, it was all leaning big left. It's all right now,” Trump said last week. “I endorsed many of those people. Every single one that I endorsed won.”
