Trump calls Brazil vote 'rigged' without evidence as Bolsonaro's party accepts Lula's victory

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday, October 26, that Brazil's presidential election looked rigged. He offered no evidence. The vote, held on Sunday, returned leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to office over right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Trump's ally and former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. The Hindu and Euronews reported the remarks and noted that Trump cited no proof. Later on Monday, Bolsonaro's Liberal Party said it recognised the result, according to The Japan Times and Al Jazeera, although Bolsonaro himself has not conceded.

The comments align the U.S. president with a defeated candidate who has not accepted the outcome in Latin America's largest democracy. They come as Lula prepares to begin another term. ABC News reported that he is expected to take office on January 5, 2027, for a fourth, non-consecutive term.

What Trump said

Trump was speaking to reporters when he was asked about the result. "I didn't take sides, but it looked like another rigged election," he said, according to The Hindu and Euronews. Both outlets also quoted him as saying: "Elections have to be indisputable, and it looked very bad to me." Euronews reported that he also said the vote "looked terrible."

Trump did not say which part of the electoral process he considered flawed. Al Jazeera, which noted that Trump has clashed with Lula in the past, reported that he stopped short of suggesting he would intervene on Bolsonaro's behalf.

The result

Lula received more than 64.25 million votes and Bolsonaro 59.83 million, Al Jazeera reported, a margin of more than 4.4 million. Euronews described Lula's lead as nearly 4.4 million votes and put his share at 51.8% of the total. ABC News put the margin at nearly 4%. The Globe and Mail reported that the country's electoral court declared Lula the winner in a result that defied polls.

Lula trailed after the first round. According to ABC News and Euronews, no Brazilian candidate had come from behind in the first round to win the runoff since 1989. Euronews reported that abstention fell from 21 percent in the first round to 19 percent. Euronews described Lula as 81 years old, while ABC News said he will soon turn 81.

The voting extension

Bolsonaro's objections centre on a last-minute decision to keep polls open longer on Sunday. Both campaigns had asked for an extension, for different reasons, according to Al Jazeera, ABC News and Euronews. Lula's campaign complained that public transport had been reduced in some cities, which ABC News said included São Paulo and Salvador. Bolsonaro's campaign cited heavy rain in the south of the country, where he has strong support.

Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin extended voting by two hours, allowing polling stations that had not yet closed to stay open until 7 p.m. Brasília time instead of 5 p.m., Al Jazeera reported. ABC News said the decision came minutes before polls were due to close, and that many stations learned of it only as they were finishing. Euronews reported chaos at some polling places that evening. Al Jazeera, citing media reports, said a transport official in Salvador, Pablo Souza, was arrested on Sunday in connection with the service reductions.

Bolsonaro argued that the extension disadvantaged his voters and pointed to Zanin's ties to Lula, Al Jazeera reported: Lula appointed Zanin to the court in 2023, and Zanin previously worked as his personal lawyer. An analysis by Pedro Burgos, a professor at the Brazilian institute Insper, found that the extension added about 35,000 votes nationwide, less than 0.03 percent of the total, according to Al Jazeera.

Bolsonaro's response to defeat

The Hindu reported that Flávio Bolsonaro has refused to concede. Euronews gave a fuller account. It said Bolsonaro first called it "impossible" to recognise Lula's win and argued that the election should have been annulled. He then said he would "organise the opposition."

Euronews reported that Bolsonaro made his annulment call in a short speech in Brasília on Sunday, calling the extension a "dirty trick" even though he had also requested one in some regions. Al Jazeera reported that he told supporters he would take legal action.

On Monday, the Liberal Party issued a statement signed by its leader, Valdemar Costa Neto, saying it recognised the result, The Japan Times and Al Jazeera reported. Al Jazeera said Costa Neto nonetheless echoed Bolsonaro's concerns, quoting him as saying: "But we believe the issues raised need to be properly clarified."

According to Euronews, Bolsonaro said in a video posted to social media on Monday that he had been banned from leaving Brazil and had been "served a notice to surrender my passports." Euronews did not say which authority issued the order or on what grounds. Al Jazeera reported that federal police asked him to hand over his passports amid speculation that he might leave the country, and that Bolsonaro said he would comply and had no plans to leave.

Ties to the White House

Trump hosted Flávio Bolsonaro at the White House earlier this year, Euronews reported, and later praised him as a smart young man devoted to his country. Trump has long been close to his father, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022 and was one of Trump's most prominent foreign allies during his first term. Al Jazeera gives the end of the elder Bolsonaro's term as 2023.

The Trump administration has welcomed a series of recent right-wing election wins elsewhere in Latin America, according to The Hindu and Euronews. Euronews named Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru among the South American countries that have shifted to the right with Trump's backing. It also reported that Trump said last week that South America had leaned heavily to the left but had now shifted to the right, and that every candidate he had endorsed in the region had won. The reports did not make clear whether Trump formally endorsed Flávio Bolsonaro before the vote. On Monday, Trump said he had not taken sides.

ABC News reported that leaders across the region, including conservative presidents opposed to Lula, gave early signs that they would respect the result.

Background

Lula, a former union leader, served two terms as president from 2003 to 2010. He returned to power in 2023 after narrowly defeating Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 election. Euronews noted that Lula had earlier spent more than 18 months in jail in a corruption case before the charges were annulled on procedural grounds.

The elder Bolsonaro also questioned the 2022 result. In 2025, Brazil's Supreme Court convicted him of plotting to overturn it, a ruling Trump criticised at the time. He is serving a 27-year prison sentence, according to ABC News, Euronews and Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera reported that a court separately barred him from public office for eight years for misusing his office to spread misinformation about the election.

Brazil adopted electronic voting machines in the 1990s to combat fraud, and no significant fraud has ever been detected, ABC News reported.

Trump has also disputed his own defeat in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Courts and election officials found no evidence of fraud that would have changed that outcome.

What comes next

It is not yet known whether Flávio Bolsonaro will file a formal legal challenge or limit himself to leading the opposition. ABC News reported that it is unclear what legal route he would have to seek an annulment. Al Jazeera cited a Monday report by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that legal advisers and political allies had persuaded Bolsonaro to drop his bid, citing the size of Lula's margin and the result's validation by the Supreme Court and electoral authorities.

Brazilian institutions have moved to recognise the outcome. ABC News reported that Kassio Nunes, president of the electoral authority and a Supreme Court justice appointed by Jair Bolsonaro, was among those who recognised Lula's victory on Sunday.

Lula will face a right-wing Congress in which Bolsonaro's party will hold more seats than any other, according to ABC News, which added that Bolsonaro remains a senator until his term ends in January.

Neither the reports nor Trump indicated whether the U.S. administration will take any step beyond Monday's remarks. The reports did not include a response from Lula's government to Trump's comments. The terms and duration of Bolsonaro's travel restriction also remain unclear.

Sources: The Hindu – International, Euronews, Reuters – World, The Japan Times, ABC News – International, Euronews, Politico, Al Jazeera – All News, Al Jazeera – All News, The Globe and Mail – World

Picture: The Hindu – International