Trump receives Flávio Bolsonaro in the Oval Office three weeks after Lula
Jair Bolsonaro’s son, who hopes to defeat the leftist president in the elections, sought a photo with the Republican to overcome a crisis and consolidate his candidacy
U.S. President Donald Trump gave a boost on Tuesday to the presidential bid of Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, by receiving him in the Oval Office, 19 days after meeting there with Brazil’s president, former union leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Barring a surprise, Lula and Bolsonaro’s son are expected to face each other at the ballot box in October. Flávio Bolsonaro’s team hopes the photo with Trump will help him overcome a popularity crisis and consolidate his candidacy.
The senator announced the meeting by posting the photo with Trump on Instagram with no comment other than two thumbs-up emojis. Until the last minute it was unclear whether the meeting would take place. The right-wing presidential hopeful was received at the White House just hours after Trump, who will turn 80 on June 14, underwent a series of medical exams at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the third such checkup in less than a year and a half in what the presidential office describes as “his annual physical.”
Leaving the White House, the Brazilian told reporters he had asked Trump to designate the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho (CV) — the most powerful organized crime groups in Brazil — as terrorist organizations. He said, however, that he did not ask Trump to endorse his presidential campaign.
The face-to-face lasted one hour and 40 minutes, one of Bolsonaro’s companions, journalist Paulo Figueiredo — who is under investigation in Brazil for coup plotting — told O Globo. “How is your father?” the U.S. president asked his visitor, Brazilian media reported.
So far the White House has not issued a statement about the meeting, which was not on Trump’s official schedule and had not been announced by any channel of the presidential office. The conversation came less than three weeks after the U.S. president met in the Oval Office with President Lula in a working meeting that included lunch.
The eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro also visited 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington at a time when Trump is pushing to announce as soon as possible a preliminary agreement with Iran that would allow a definitive end to the war while the most contentious issues between the two countries — above all Iran’s nuclear program — continue to be negotiated. Above all, the White House seeks to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil and gas flow.
Less than two weeks ago, the scandal that abruptly halted Bolsonaro’s campaign broke in Brazil. Intercept Brasil published an audio in which the candidate, in a conspiratorial tone, solicits money from a convicted banker he claimed not to know to pay for a biographical film about his father. It turned out that the banker — now jailed on fraud charges — had pledged millions of dollars for the movie. Bolsonaro’s son defended himself, saying it was a private conversation between two individuals about private funds to finance a private project.
But the latest polls show a certain decline for Bolsonaro while President Lula has gained ground; before the scandal the two had been in a technical tie for weeks.
Securing time with Trump for the candidate is a coup for Eduardo Bolsonaro, the third brother and the family member in charge of relations with Trumpism, who has also posed with the Republican. According to Brazilian press reports, the route to Trump went through the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
The photo with Trump allows Bolsonaro to once again link the family’s political project to Trumpism, a relationship that had soured after the tariff punishment imposed by the Republican at the behest of the far-right Brazilian clan backfired on them.
The meeting with Trump also helps Bolsonaro’s son project the image of an international leader. The right-winger, who presents himself as a moderate version of his father, attended the meeting wearing a green-and-yellow tie, the colors of the Brazilian flag and the same colors as the tie President Lula wears on major occasions.
The fear of interference by Trump or his administration in the elections, as has happened in Honduras and Argentina, hovers over the Brazilian campaign. Last year the U.S. exerted extraordinary pressure on Brazil to drop prosecutions against Jair Bolsonaro. It failed. The former president is now serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup d’état against Lula.
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