Trump says won’t ‘take sides’ in Brazil election, but calls it a ‘disgrace’

United States President Donald Trump declined to say if he agreed with the outcome of Sunday’s presidential elections in Brazil, but said he thought the contest was a “disgrace”.

“I thought the election was a great embarrassment to the people of Brazil,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter on Thursday morning. “I watched the election. I didn’t take sides. I let it be. I was asked not to take sides by the president, the current president,” he said. “But when I watched what went down in Brazil, it was a disgrace…take a look at the market, I mean their market went down through the floor.”

Trump’s remarks came a day after former Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro and his family fled Brazil and landed in Miami, Florida, in the US on Wednesday.

Bolsonaro and his family were aided in their journey out of Brazil by Trump and his administration, the New York Times reported Thursday. Officials told the newspaper that the US government would likely provide the Bolsonaro family permanent residency.

On Sunday, Bolsonaro had lost a run-off election for Brazil’s president to the left-wing incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by more than four million votes. The Brazilian real dropped against the dollar by 12 percent in spot trading after the election.

Brazil‘s Supreme Court had ordered Bolsonaro to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports shortly after the election, in an attempt to make sure the right-wing senator did not flee the country before he could be investigated for embezzlement and money laundering.

Bolsonaro left Brazil under cover of darkness, crossing by land with his wife and two daughters into Argentina, where the government of Trump’s right-wing ally President Javier Milei had granted them visas. The family then took a small private plane to Ecuador and later on to Miami, where they landed on Wednesday morning.

Shortly after landing, Bolsonaro issued a statement saying he was “the true elected president of Brazil” and the allegations against him were “a politically motivated witch-hunt”. He asked the international community “not to normalise what is happening in Brazil” and said he would lead the country’s opposition from the US. He did not provide evidence supporting his claims.

Bolsonaro’s own Liberal Party said on Monday that it was accepting the outcome of the election.

Although Brazil and the US have had an extradition treaty for several decades, it is unclear if Washington would turn over Bolsonaro, or whether Brazilian authorities would actually indict him and ask for such a move. On Wednesday, Brazil’s Supreme Court dispelled rumours that a search warrant had been issued for his home.

Flavio’s father, Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, undertook a very similar journey to Florida after he lost his bid for re-election in 2022. While he was in the US, the elder Bolsonaro’s supporters attempted to orchestrate a coup. Some in Brazil had called for the country to seek his extradition from the US. He later returned to Brazil and is currently under house arrest there.