by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News October 5, 2026
President Donald Trump is watching Brazil’s presidential election results closely for two key reasons.
Conservative Flavio Bolsonaro, right, led Brazil’s leftist incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after Sunday’s first round of Brazil’s presidential election.
One, conservative Flavio Bolsonaro, a Trump ally and son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, was the top vote-getter in the first round and advanced to a runoff with incumbent leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Two, Trump pointed to the quick pace of the Brazilian presidential election to highlight slow ballot counting in a number of American cities and states.
Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social on Sunday:
“125 Million People voted today in the first round of Brazil’s Presidential Election. The results came out shortly after the vote closed, on the SAME DAY! In Detroit, Philadelphia, California, and numerous other U.S. Cities and States, the results, with much smaller numbers, will often take weeks to Rig, I mean, calculate. Voting in America is CORRUPT!!!”
American voters’ trust in elections is eroding. In a poll conducted in early September by the University of California San Diego Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections, just 49% of respondents said they expect the midterm elections to be free and fair.
Related: Fight, fight, fight: Team Trump mounts all-out push for midterms election security, September 25, 2026
Meanwhile, the Brazil presidential runoff election will be held on Oct. 25.
In total, seven conservative candidates have won presidential elections across Latin America in the last 18 months, with Trump publicly backing most of them.
“We’re doing very well in South America,” Trump said in September. “Lots of people that I got elected.”
