The president of the United States, Donald Trump, insisted this Monday that he did not take a position in favor of any of the candidates in the second round of the Brazilian presidential elections held this Sunday, in which leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ended up prevailing over the far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. However, Trump claims that "fraud" has occurred and has described the two-hour extension of the voting hours as "strange."
"I did not take sides, but it seems like another electoral fraud, frankly. I did not take sides, but it has left a terrible impression on the world," the president stated when questioned by the press.
Although this time Trump did not publicly express his support for Flávio Bolsonaro, he did receive him at the White House last May and had already supported his father in 2021, when Jair Bolsonaro won the presidency of Brazil.
"These are other elections. Elections must be indisputable and it seems to me that it looks very bad," Trump added, who has described the process as "corrupt."
At the same time, Trump emphasized that he "likes" Lula. "I get along very well with him. I just think it looks very bad... the elections, the way the tabulation was done. The extension that was given was very strange," he indicated, referring to the decision of the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil to delay the closing of polling stations from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM due to incidents in public transportation in several cities.
In reaction to these words, the vice president of Brazil, Geraldo Alckmin, rejected Trump's "totally mistaken" intervention. "First, you do not interfere in the politics of another country. That is a basic rule. Second, he has no evidence to say that," he stated in remarks to the Rede Vanguarda network.
In response to the suspicions raised by Trump, Alckmin defended that Brazil "is an example for the world." "Of electronic voting, of legal security, of democracy and more. You win elections, you lose elections. The people decide," he emphasized.
The vice president added that one of the priorities of Lula's next government will be to promote the trade agenda with the United States and recalled that, after the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, Brazilian exports to Europe have increased by more than 30% in just five months.