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Trump Scrambles to Rescue MAGA Ally After Humiliating Defeat

The presidential flop has arrived in the U.S.

Runaway presidential flop Flávio Bolsonaro has arrived in the U.S. with the White House’s blessing.

President Donald Trump said early Wednesday that the right-wing presidential candidate is welcome following his election defeat in Brazil on Sunday.

Bolsonaro was seen exiting a Gulfstream IV in Miami before heading to a motorcade without speaking to the press, the Guardian reports.

Just hours earlier, the 80-year-old president was on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews following a midterm campaign event in Texas when he was asked whether he would be open to granting Bolsonaro a U.S. visa.

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“I would approve,” Trump said when asked what he thought of him coming to the U.S. “I think they’re fine people. The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible to see it. I didn’t pick sides.”

The Brazilian senator lost a runoff election to left-wing incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and later fled the country despite a Supreme Court order requiring him to hand in his passport.

The 45-year-old has refused to concede the election.

A senator since 2019, he is the son of South American strongman and former president, Jair Bolsonaro, whom Trump has long admired.

The older Bolsonaro was ousted from power in 2023, and Trump claimed that he had suffered from judicial persecution. He has since been jailed.

“Lula, I know,” Trump continued. “Flávio a little bit I know. I know the father very well. His father was treated really badly. But I wasn’t involved. That’s Brazil. It’s a different country.”

He then said he had supported Colombia’s new president, right-wing populist Abelardo de la Espriella, who was elected in August.

“And he won. And he’s turning out to be a very strong, very good president.

“I didn’t endorse in Brazil. I thought I’d stay out of that one. It’s fine, the end result, but I thought the way they got to the end result was terrible,” he added.

The U.S. State Department has since confirmed to Reuters and the BBC that it would be issuing the right-wing politician and his family visas. He was the subject of a probe into money laundering allegations in Brazil.

Lula’s victory has secured him an historic fourth term.

After the election, Bolsonaro’s whereabouts were unclear.

The BBC reports that the Brazilian Federal Police contacted Argentinian authorities to ascertain whether he had entered the country.

Argentina is led by Javier Milei, an ally of both Trump and the Bolsonaro family.

His government said that it had no record of Bolsonaro entering his country through an official checkpoint.

“I heard he was in Argentina,” Trump added on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. “I don’t know where he is, but I heard he was in Argentina.”

Argentinian authorities later said he had departed the country on a flight to Ecuador, Sky News reports.

Local reports then suggested he had made it to Florida.

U.S. government sources confirmed to the BBC late Tuesday that he had arrived in the U.S.

On Monday night, the eve of his departure to the U.S., the senator said in a video statement that “I never thought about leaving the country.”

He denies allegations of money laundering.

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Harry ThompsonNews Reporter

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