In Brazil, the US election is inspiring hard-right ‘Trump of the tropics’ supporters to ‘complete our mission’

CNN ^ | Sun November 10, 2024 | Julia Vargas Jones

[MinorityRepublican]

Since President-elect Donald Trump’s political comeback on Tuesday, Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters have celebrated his victory as their own.

In many ways, nowhere has Trump’s political strategy been more rigorously mirrored than in Brazil. Reenergized, Bolsonaro’s base has set its sights on the 2026 election, seeing Trump’s resurgence as evidence that a similar return could unfold in Brazil.

Although barred from running until 2030, Bolsonaro congratulated Trump in a series of videos and posts drawing comparisons between their paths and saying he hoped Trump’s return to power would inspire Brazil “to complete our mission.”

Over the years, Bolsonaro has leaned into the nickname of “Trump of the tropics,” and both men have built parallel legacies – each facing legal and personal trials, including assassination attempts and indictments, and both elevating their families to roles of political prominence.

At the Trump watch party in Mar-a-Lago on election night, Donald Trump Jr. posed for a photo with his Brazilian counterpart, former first son and congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro. On Wednesday, Eduardo told CNN Brasil, “as goes the United States, so goes Brazil.”

A linchpin of Bolsonaro’s strategy has been his alliance with prominent US conservatives, a task led by his son Eduardo. Since at least 2018, Eduardo has frequently traveled to the United States, cultivating relationships with figures like former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and American Conservative Union chair Matt Schlapp.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Another populist leader defeated by election fraud...

[FLT-bird]

Yep. This needs to be one of the priorities of the Trump administration. Undo what the CIA/Biden Administration did. Push Lula out and push Bolsonaro back into office in Brazil.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Brazil should be as rich and successful as the US. So tell me. Why not?

[maro]

Political culture. The rich are too powerful. Not a big middle class. We want to avoid becoming like Brazil.

[Rockingham]

My brother is married to a bright and hard-working Brazilian immigrant who is a dual citizen and a fervent Trump and Bolsinaro supporter. Socialists and crooks are Brazil's undoing, as my sister in law and her fellow Brazilian immigrant friends can describe in detail. In their experience, socialism is simply government by crooks and they are appalled that so many Americans do not see this.

[brookwood]

Bolsonaro is not “hard right”, he ran on ending the embezzlement for which Lula was in prison for 3 years until their Supreme Court (STF) overruled the conviction on the basis that the charges were brought in the wrong jurisdiction. In the US the question of jurisdiction is always decided before the case goes to a jury. The evidence that Lula was corrupt was overwhelming. Government contracts were decided based on who gave the bribes. Lula had use of a house but claimed it wasn’t his house. The house had 2 boats, each boat was named after one of his sons.

[brookwood]

From the leftist Huffington Post, a list of Lula’s corruption. His family lived in a fancy apartment owned by a construction company that was getting huge government contracts. He lived on a farm which he claimed he didn’t own which was renovated by the same construction company.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/as-the-petrobas-corruptio_b_9400048

Former Governor John Rowland of CT went to jail for accepting renovations to his home free of charge from the Tomasso Group, a contractor who did business with the state of CT. Same thing Lula did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Rowland

[Rockingham]

The Brazilian judiciary is as rotten as the rest of their government. As for jurisdiction in US law, objections to some jurisdictional defects such as to in personam jurisdiction may be lost by procedural default, but in most respects, US law is to the effect that jurisdictional defects are (usually) fundamental and may be raised for the first time on appeal, even sua sponte by the court.

I once saw that done live during oral argument before a state Supreme Court, with the attorney for the appellant gasping in astonishment as he was politely directed by the Chief Justice to stop speaking and to leave the podium because the case had been dismissed. He and his colleagues had voted to do so in a whispered conference on the bench when the attorney conceded a key fact under questioning that was fatal to jurisdiction.

Most notably, the "case or controversy" requirement in federal practice is constitutional and can result in loss of jurisdiction on appeal. In civil rights cases especially, governments may tender full damages and change the policy at issue in a case in order to avoid a potentially sweeping adverse decision at the appellate level that gets applied in other cases.

I am near certain that Lula got out because enough cash and political pressure was applied to do so. After all, had he talked, most of the political and business elite in Brazil would have been in the crosshairs.