Flavio Bolsonaro Arrives in Florida After Election Defeat, Says He Did Not Flee Brazil
Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro landed in Miami on Wednesday after losing Sunday's runoff election to incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with the Trump administration granting visas to him and his family.
Flavio Bolsonaro, who lost Brazil's presidential runoff election on Sunday to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, arrived in the United States on Wednesday, touching down at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport in Florida shortly after 9 a.m. ET. He was accompanied by his family, who were shielded from photographers by umbrellas as they left the airport.
The Trump administration confirmed it is issuing visas to Bolsonaro and his family. President Trump, speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, said he had granted them entry because he believed they had been "treated very unfairly" in Brazil. He declined to say who he believed had won the Brazilian election, calling it "a very strange election," and said he had not spoken with Bolsonaro directly.
Bolsonaro is under investigation in Brazil over a sports betting case and for a separate probe into the production of a movie about his father, Jair Bolsonaro, who served as Brazil's president from 2019 to 2023. Brazilian authorities said they were investigating whether he had fled to the United States.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Bolsonaro thanked Argentina's government and Trump for helping him leave Brazil, and claimed without evidence that Sunday's election had involved fraud. He pushed back against the characterisation that he had run away. "Given the political weaponization of justice in Brazil, I brought my family to the United States, where we are safe," he said. "I did not flee Brazil. I left Brazil — left a state of exception — so I could be the leader my people deserve."
