‘Looked very bad to me’: Trump says Lula’s big election victory in Brazil appeared rigged

US President Donald Trump said Brazil’s presidential election, won by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday, “looked like another rigged election”, without citing evidence, as defeated right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat.

"I didn't take ​sides, but it looked like another rigged election," Trump told reporters on Monday. "Elections have ​to be indisputable, and ​it looked very bad to me."

Trump said he had a good relationship with Lula but questioned the way the election was conducted.

"Well, I'm not running Brazil, I'm running the USA...I like Lula. I get along with him very well. I just think it had a very bad look, the election, the way it was tabulated, with the extension given, it was very strange,” he said.

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Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, had earlier said he would seek to annul Lula’s victory after Brazil’s Supreme Court extended voting by two hours. Later on Monday, however, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party acknowledged the result. Party head Valdemar Costa Neto said they recognised the presidential election results but believed that issues raised need to be properly clarified.

Bolsonaro had also said he would comply with a federal police order to hand over his passports after visiting his father, who is under house arrest, while denying plans to flee Brazil.

Lula defeated Bolsonaro by more than 4 million votes. An analysis of electoral records by Insper professor Pedro Burgos found that fewer than 35,000 votes, or around 0.03% of the total, were cast during the additional two hours of voting.

Brazil’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin defended the electoral system, calling Trump’s remarks “totally wrong” and “unfounded” in a television interview.

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Trump did not endorse Bolsonaro ahead of the vote, although officials from his State Department reportedly led a campaign to return the Bolsonaro family to power.

Lula’s victory was widely welcomed by world leaders but unsettled investors who had anticipated a Bolsonaro win. Brazil’s real fell 8.1% against the dollar, its biggest one-day decline since 2002, while the stock exchange recorded its steepest daily fall since 2020.

Lula’s fourth mandate is expected to face challenges in Congress, which has shifted further to the right following gains by Bolsonaro allies.