Trump says he is following Brazil’s elections ‘very closely’
The US president avoids giving an explicit endorsement to the far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula’s rival
Asked by reporters about Brazil’s upcoming presidential election, to be held on Sunday amid heightened tension between Washington and the leftist government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he is following it “very closely.”
“Brazil is a very important country. The people of Brazil are fantastic. These are very important elections,” he said on Thursday before traveling to Texas and Oklahoma, without expressing support for any candidate.
The Trump administration’s relationship with Lula’s government has been full of nuances. The U.S. president feels genuine sympathy for his Brazilian counterpart. At the same time, his administration has imposed tariffs on Brazilian goods and opened investigations into alleged unfair trade practices. It has also placed Brazilian criminal gangs on its list of international terrorist organizations, despite opposition from Brasilia.
Lula’s government says Washington’s measures amount to interference in the electoral process of a country that has become a progressive island surrounded by right-wing governments in South America.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has proclaimed his “Donroe doctrine” to increase U.S. influence in Latin America and to promote and favor ideologically aligned governments in the region. The U.S. president has openly backed conservative and far-right candidates in elections across the continent, from Nasry Asfura in Honduras to Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia.
Lula’s main rival, Flávio Bolsonaro — the son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of Trump — traveled to Washington to meet the U.S. president in a private meeting at the White House. The younger Bolsonaro hoped that the photo op would help his campaign and possibly secure some form of explicit, public support from the Republican for his candidacy. He got the photo, but not a public endorsement.
U.S. and Russian interference
Brazil’s intelligence agency informed officials in France and Germany about interference by Washington and Moscow ahead of Sunday’s vote. Members of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN) confirmed the existence of interference by both the United States and Russia, Reuters reported, citing a report on the meetings it had access to.
The U.S. interference ranged from “the use of the judicial system for political ends” to “openly acknowledged” meddling, according to ABIN officials. There are no details about the alleged Russian intervention.
The European delegation that visited Brasilia in early September was made up of French members of Viginum, an agency dedicated to detecting foreign disinformation, and Arcom, the media and communications regulator, both state bodies. The Germans belonged to the Federal Network Agency, the public body that regulates telecommunications, energy, rail and postal services in Germany.
The initial purpose of the visit to Brazil was to discuss implementation of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires major tech platforms to step up efforts to combat illegal content.
During their stay in Brazil, European officials were told by a senior Brazilian cybersecurity official that cyberattacks in Brazil had nearly doubled compared with 2025 and that attempts to hack the president’s office had increased, something that would be clearly “related to the elections,” Reuters reported.
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