President Donald Trump took him to social media to defend his fellow right-wing leader, Jia Bolsonaro, a former Brazilian president, who faces criminal charges allegedly planning a coup.
On Monday, Trump wrote to social media platform Truth Social that Bolsonaro’s indictment was an example of political persecution.
“Brazil is doing terrible things about how former President Jia Bolsonaro handles it,” Trump said.
“I have seen them, like in the world, do nothing after him, every day, every month, every year!
Trump continued to compare his own legal issues with Bolsonaro’s. Both leaders have been accused of trying to undermine their country’s elections following the loss.
In Trump’s case, the charges are related to his 2020 competition with Democrat Joe Biden. Trump lost, but prosecutors say he and his allies conspired to fraudulent voters by putting pressure on staff to say he won. The lies peaked in an attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, with Trump supporters trying to confuse certifications for the 2020 election results.
Trump was later faced with federal charges in Washington, D.C. and state-level charges for his actions in Georgia. However, the federal charges were dropped after he took office in a second term in January.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro is facing a criminal trial that allegedly masterminds plans to maintain power after the 2022 election defeat to Brazilian President Louise Inacio Lula da Silva.
In preparation for the election, Bolsonaro spread falsehoods about the accuracy of Brazilian voting machines and then refused to publicly admit defeat. Similarly, thousands of his supporters stormed government buildings in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, to protest the outcome.
Prosecutors say police have unearthed evidence of a plot plotted by Bolsonaro and his allies to take power through a coup.
Both Trump and Bolsonaro deny fraud. In a post Monday, Trump said both cases reflected a politically motivated “witch hunt” designed to sluggish popularity among voters.
“This isn’t much more than, or even more, an attack on a political enemy. That’s what I know! It happened to me, 10 o’clock,” Trump wrote. “The great people in Brazil don’t support what they’re doing to the former president.”
He appeared to end his post with Bolsonaro’s reelection call. “The only trial that should happen is by Brazilian voters – it’s called elections. Leave Bolsonaro alone!”
However, Bolsonaro is prohibited from taking office for eight years, which expires in 2030. Brazil’s excellent election court issued a punishment in another case in 2023 after discovering that Bolsonaro used his government position to abuse his power by spreading doubts about the country’s voting machine.
Trump and Bolsonaro have long faced comparisons with each other. They both took office in their first period in 2017, and both lost their first attempts to reelection. Former Army captain Bolsonaro is known as “tropical Trump.”
Critics have long speculated that Trump may attempt to intervene in prosecuting Brazil’s far-right leaders through political pressure.
Earlier this year, Trump Media and Technology Group took part in a Florida lawsuit against Brazil’s Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Mores, claiming that the recent decision from the judge amounted to censoring right-wing voices.
De Moraise oversees criminal cases against Bolsonaro and is considered a target of rage for Brazilian rights.
In her social media response on Monday, President Lula showed that Trump’s social media mischief could be seen as an attempt to hamper Brazil’s judicial system.
He didn’t mention either Trump or Bolsonaro by name, but Left leader Lula refused to advise people from overseas who tried to influence the ongoing trial.
“The defense of Brazilian democracy is a problem for Brazilians to deal with. We are sovereign countries. We do not accept interference or guidance from anyone,” Lula wrote. “We have solid, independent institutions. No one is beyond the law, especially those who threaten freedom and the rule of law.”
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro took him to social media, where Trump explicitly thanked him for words of support.
“I thank my illustrious President and friends. You’ve experienced similar things. You were persecuted without mercy, but you won for the United States and dozens of other truly democratic countries,” Bolsonaro wrote, recalling Trump’s memo to be “happy.”
Bolsonaro used the opportunity to declare his innocence once again, blasting his political opponents as manipulating the trial.
“The process I’m responding to is a legal anomaly (the law), a clear political persecution,” he said.
A former president could face up to 40 years of prison if convicted.
