After losing Brazil's election last Sunday and leaving for the US, Flávio Bolsonaro declared himself the "true president" of his country, according to The Guardian.
The far-right senator laid out that stance in a letter released after the private jet carrying his family landed in Miami, Florida, Wednesday morning, even as his own party accepted Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's legitimate win. Later on, the senator took the letter down and issued a fresh one, in which, rather than styling himself the "true president," he called himself "the leader of Brazil."
Bolsonaro vanished from view for more than 24 hours following his defeat to Lula in Sunday's runoff, resurfacing only when Argentina's authorities reported that he had crossed into their country overland on the night of Tuesday.
At about 11:30 p.m., the jet left the ground carrying Bolsonaro, who is the son of Brazil's jailed ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, alongside his wife and their two teenage daughters, headed to Guayaquil, in Ecuador, a route reportedly chosen to skirt Brazilian airspace. The final leg ended at an airport called Miami-Opa Locka, a hub for private aviation that lies roughly 11 miles to the north of Miami's downtown and serves wealthy travelers and corporate executives.
In the letter, Bolsonaro thanked Argentine President Javier Milei "for his courage, sense of justice and legality" and Donald Trump "and the wonderful American people for welcoming me."
Though he alleged "electoral fraud" for a second time in the letter, the electoral court, the supreme court and the leaders of both the Senate and the lower chamber in Brazil have all rejected that claim. On Monday, the senator's own party stated: "We recognise the presidential result."
In the letter compares his departure from Brazil to that of Charles de Gaulle, who led Free France from London during World War II, and to that of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
According to Brazilian newspapers, the senator and his relatives had received US humanitarian visas, and on Tuesday night Trump stated that he would sign off on their relocation to the country. "They're fine people. … I didn't take sides, you know. I know them both. I know Lula. I know Flávio a little bit. I know the father very well," Trump said.
Q: Flávio Bolsonaro has declared himself the "rightful president" of Brazil. Do you agree? Trump: I'm not going to make a comment about that. I won't get involved. It was a very strange election, that's for sure. https://t.co/CfzV1yuGsb
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 28, 2026
Trump, questioned over the claim made by Bolsonaro, said on Wednesday that he would keep out of the turmoil that followed Brazil's election. "Well, I'm not going to make a comment about that, but I know that we gave him a pass to come into the country, so we'll see," Trump said, before adding: "But I won't get involved. It was a very strange election, that's for sure."
The US backing for Flávio is a direct continuation of the crisis between Washington and Brasília over his father's trial. Trump, who was close to Jair Bolsonaro when both were in office, called the proceedings against him a "witch hunt," imposed sanctions on Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who convicted the elder Bolsonaro and now oversees the case against his son, and levied 50% tariffs on imports from Brazil. Tensions eased last year after a meeting between Trump and Lula, but flared again in the election year.
In May, Flávio met Trump at the White House, and Lula's government accused the family of once again working in the US to encourage foreign interference in Brazil. In July, Brazil refused to grant visas to two senior State Department officials who, according to The Washington Post, planned to act against the credibility of the electoral system. In August, the Trump administration revoked the visa of Brazil's ambassador to Washington.
Speaking in Brasília at an event to mark turning 81, Lula described Bolsonaro's flight as "shameful" and said: "This is what the Bolsonaro family are like. Brazil is their second homeland. Their first homeland is licking the boots of the US, as they've become accustomed to doing."
Throughout Tuesday, according to suspicions inside the Brazilian government, allies of Bolsonaro were quietly telling reporters that he was already heading for the US. The suspicion is that this was meant to divert attention from the genuine plan of passing through Argentina. Meanwhile, criticism is being directed at the federal police over the failure to stop him from exiting the country.
According to the Argentine daily Página/12, the aircraft was owned by the entrepreneur Sergio Daniel Mastropietro, whom local police had probed in what became one of the largest scandals of the administration of Javier Milei, centered on alleged bribes tied to the procurement of medicines for disabled people.
Two or more criminal cases are probing Bolsonaro, and one of them concerns suspected involvement by the senator in a scheme to launder money, worth around £680M ($905M), that involved betting companies.
In the money-laundering case, Brazilian police petitioned the Supreme Court, soon after the outcome of the vote, for an order to retain Bolsonaro's passport, out of concern that he could flee, pointing to remarks that Eduardo Bolsonaro, a former congressman and brother of the senator, made in an interview last Friday.
Eduardo, who lives in self-imposed exile in the US and is lobbying there against Lula before the administration of Donald Trump, said on a podcast that, should his brother be beaten at the polls, he ought not to concede and ought to head to the US.
According to O Globo, the escape was mapped out weeks in advance as a fallback in the event of a defeat, with Eduardo as its chief organizer and in discussions with US officials over taking in the senator.
In recent years, roughly twelve politicians and influencers with close ties to Jair Bolsonaro have left the country in the same way, making flight from Brazil nearly routine among supporters of the Bolsonaro family who face prosecution or have been convicted at home.
Following his defeat in the 2022 election, Jair Bolsonaro, the former president, stayed in Florida for three months. Back in Brazil afterward, he stood trial for the coup attempt.
