The defeated candidate in Brazil’s presidential election, Flávio Bolsonaro, has turned up in Florida, insisting that the vote he lost was fraudulent and that he, not the winner, is Brazil’s legitimate leader.
The senator and eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro landed at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on a private jet on Wednesday morning, accompanied by his wife and daughters, according to Euronews and ABC News. His arrival came three days after left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat him in Sunday’s runoff.
A comeback win for Lula
Lula, who turns 81 soon, won the 25 October runoff with 51.8% of the vote, a lead of almost 4.4 million votes once every ballot was counted, the Associated Press reported via CBS News. It was a striking turnaround: Bolsonaro had led the first round with 47% to Lula’s 45%.
The result hands Lula a non-consecutive fourth term, due to begin on 5 January 2027.
Bolsonaro refused to concede on election night and asked for the result to be annulled, pointing to chaotic scenes at some polling stations after voting hours were extended by two hours. He has since alleged electoral fraud, but has offered no evidence to back up the claim, ABC News reported.
‘I will lead the opposition from here’
In a statement on X after landing, Bolsonaro said he would lead the opposition from the United States. Euronews noted that a later statement quietly changed the title he gave himself from “president” to “leader”.
He also denied running away. He told reporters he had left because of what he called the political weaponisation of justice, insisted he “did not flee Brazil”, and thanked Argentina’s government and Donald Trump for helping him leave, according to ABC.
The circumstances of his departure are, however, under scrutiny at home. Euronews reported that Bolsonaro is under investigation in Brazil over alleged corruption and money laundering, that his parliamentary immunity was about to expire, and that he had been ordered to hand over his passports. He left regardless, travelling via Argentina and Ecuador. ABC said Brazilian authorities were also looking at whether he fled, and that he is under investigation in a sports betting case and over a film about his father.
His father, Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest in Brazil following his attempt to overturn his 2022 defeat to Lula.
Trump: ‘we gave him a pass’
The Bolsonaro family has close ties to the Trump administration. A State Department official told ABC News that visas were being issued to Bolsonaro and his family. Trump himself said “we gave him a pass to come into the country”, declined to say who had won Brazil’s election and said he had not spoken to Bolsonaro.
According to Euronews, Trump also described Brazil’s election as “very strange” but said he would not get involved in Bolsonaro’s claim to the presidency.
The episode echoes the end of 2022, when Jair Bolsonaro also left Brazil for Florida shortly before Lula’s inauguration, a period that ended with his supporters storming government buildings in Brasília in January 2023.
What happens next
Brazilian investigators are expected to press ahead with the cases against Bolsonaro, and the question of whether he breached a court order by leaving could become a major legal and diplomatic flashpoint between Brasília and Washington, especially if Brazil seeks his return.
Lula is due to be sworn in on 5 January. Bolsonaro’s fraud claims have not been backed by evidence, and how far his supporters rally behind his call to lead from abroad will be a key test of the movement’s strength now that both father and son are sidelined, one under house arrest and the other in Florida.
Sources
- Euronews: Bolsonaro claims he is Brazil’s true leader after fleeing to US (29 October 2026)
- ABC News: ‘I did not flee Brazil,’ Bolsonaro says after landing in US following election defeat (28 October 2026)
- CBS News (AP): Lula wins 4th term as Brazil’s president, beating Flávio Bolsonaro in runoff, but Bolsonaro rejects results (26 October 2026)
Featured image: FlavioBolsonaro5 (22913796492) by JAIR MESSIAS BOLSONARO from Brasília-DF, Brasil, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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