Trump claims Brazil vote looked rigged after Lula wins fourth term
The U.S. president questioned the election process despite the defeated candidate's party accepting the result and fewer than 35,000 votes cast in the disputed two-hour extension.
By Samir Doyle ·
Fewer than 35,000 votes, or roughly 0.03 percent of the total, were cast during the two-hour voting extension that U.S. President Donald Trump called strange. On Monday, Trump told reporters that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's surprise victory in Brazil's presidential election looked like another rigged election. He offered no evidence to support the claim.
Trump said he had not taken sides in the race but added that the vote tabulation gave it a very bad look. The comments came after Brazil's Supreme Court decided to lengthen voting by two hours on Sunday. Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, had refused to concede initially. He said he would seek to annul Lula's victory over the extra time.
Pedro Burgos, an Insper professor, analyzed electoral records to determine the impact of that extension. He found that the final two hours accounted for a small fraction of the total votes. Lula won the runoff by more than 4 million votes, a margin that would be difficult to overturn. Flavio Bolsonaro had trailed in the first round before losing the second round.
Later on Monday, the Liberal Party issued a statement signed by its head, Valdemar Costa Neto. The party recognized the presidential election results, though it stated that the issues raised need to be properly clarified. Flavio Bolsonaro has not spoken publicly since that statement. Earlier in the day, after visiting his father who is under house arrest, he said he would comply with a federal police order to hand over his passports and denied he planned to flee Brazil.
Vice President Geraldo Alckmin defended the Brazilian electoral system in a TV interview with Rede Vanguarda. He called Trump's remarks totally wrong and unfounded. Trump did not endorse Bolsonaro before the vote, although State Department officials led a campaign to return the Bolsonaros to power. Neither Trump nor Jair Bolsonaro accepted their respective election defeats in 2020 and 2022.
Markets reacted sharply to the result. Brazil's real fell 8.1 percent against the dollar, its biggest one-day drop since 2002. The stock exchange posted its steepest one-day decline since 2020. Investors had been betting on a Bolsonaro win. Andres Abadia, chief Latin America economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the initial selloff could ease as election-related positions are unwound, but investors will demand convincing fiscal commitments before rebuilding exposure.
Lula campaigned on his record of reducing poverty and inequality. He cited record-low unemployment, illiteracy, and deforestation. His victory defied polls and global anti-incumbent sentiment. A surge of conservative voters in the first round pushed Congress further to the right, leaving him with an uphill fight for his agenda in a legislature packed with Bolsonaro allies.
