Donald Trump Praises Jair Bolsonaro As ‘Great’ Leader

Former President Donald Trump was all praise for Jair Bolsonaro, who got defeated by challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the election to become Brazil’s next President.

On Friday, Trump called Bolsonaro a "great" leader and urged people of Brazil to give him a second term in office. Trump told his followers on Truth Social to vote for "President JAIR BOLSONARO -- HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!!!"

He promoted Bolsonaro's reelection for the second time in the post. He called the Brazilian leader "a fantastic man, one of the great Presidents of any country in the world" prior to the first-round vote on Oct. 2. The former President also referred to Sunday's second-round vote as a "great day for Brazil."

But Silva won the election to become Brazil’s next President by a whisker. He defeated incumbent Bolsonaro after a campaign that was bitterly fought. According to Brazil's election authority, on Sunday Silva got 50.8% of the vote compared with 49.2% for Bolsonaro, reported Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, The Guardian reported on Thursday that fears were growing that Bolsonaro could refuse to accept defeat in Brazil’s election on Sunday. The fears popped up after his politician son, Flávio, claimed that his father was the victim of “the greatest electoral fraud ever seen” amid unproven allegations of foul play.

The assertion from the Senator was almost identical to language used by Trump after he lost the 2020 U.S. Presidential election to Joe Biden. Trump is considered as Bolsonaro’s most prominent international backer. The former President used false claims of widespread voter fraud to decry “the greatest fraud in the history of our country from an electoral standpoint." Then on Jan. 6, 2021, many of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to overturn the election result.

Many fear that Bolsonaro, who has spent years attacking Brazil’s democratic system, plans to follow a similar script. Fears that Bolsonaro might contest the result intensified last week after his communications minister, Fábio Faria, called journalists to denounce what he called “a grave violation of the electoral system." Without providing any evidence, Faria claimed that radio stations in north-east Brazil had broadcast thousands more campaign adverts for Silva's campaign.