Trump congratulates Brazil’s Bolsonaro on presidential win
President Trump on Sunday evening called Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro to congratulate him on his win.
Trump and Bolsonaro told one another that they are looking forward to working “side-by-side” as “regional leaders of the Americas,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
Bolsonaro, the controversial right-wing populist who has been nicknamed “Trump of the Tropics,” won 55.1 percent of the vote with 99 percent voting by Sunday evening in the U.S.
The longtime Brazilian congressman has been fiercely criticized for his incendiary rhetoric that opponents and activists have called racist, sexist and anti-LGBTQ. He has faced multiple fines and charges for statements targeting black, gay and indigenous Brazilians.
He has long touted his anti-LGBTQ stance, encouraging parents to beat their gay children, and has criticized Brazil’s former brutal military dictatorship for not going “far enough” in their mass killings.
His rise has troubled anti-fascists who follow Brazilian politics, as he has endorsed the authoritarian violence that was endemic in the country under its previous military rule.
A movement of mainly women called “Ele Não,” or “not him” rose up to oppose Bolsonaro in Brazil over the past year, drawing parallels to the U.S.’s “Me Too” movement which has vehemently opposed Trump.
Bolsonaro is set to become the most right-wing politician in the region.
[The Hill]