Jair Bolsonaro is a ghostly figure – haunting Brazil’s 2026 elections and all political coverage of his son Flavio. Jair served as the 38th President of Brazil from January 2019 until December 2022. His conservative and militaristic viewpoints, shaped by his early life during Brazil’s military dictatorship, became a focal point of his political career, where Bolsonaro’s name frequently materialized in the media for controversial statements and policies.
Before being elected, Bolsonaro capitalized on voters plagued by a national economic crisis and a corrupt presidency. With a populist campaign, he entered office with a strong support base and time to kill. While Bolsonaro prioritized agricultural development, he reduced protections for indigenous people, downplayed the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and cozied up to President Donald Trump overseas.
His defeat in the 2022 presidential election led to his supporters attempting a coup in January 2023.
Now, Bolsonaro’s political history sounds very familiar, except President Trump did it first. While mainstream media and political pundits thought it was impossible for Trump to win in 2016, with his inappropriate comments towards men, minorities and reporters with disabilities, he did just that. Building support off rural communities’ losing jobs and white people who thought their cultural and political dominance was under threat, Trump succeeded with a campaign that branded career politicians as detached from the desires of the working class and stained with financial corruption – Trump, the outsider, was different. He’d save the day.
Trump’s presidency between 2016 and 2020 was controlled by the COVID-19 pandemic; he, too, downplayed it, much to the dismay of some states and international leaders. His defeat to Joe Biden also led to his supporters attempting a coup, of which the Trump administration has now rewritten to be a day of peaceful protest.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s inability to pull off a sweeping win against Flavio Bolsonaro in the first-round of votes looks to be an omen for our own upcoming presidential elections in 2028. Flavio, Bolsonaro’s eldest son, is running off a platform that primarily continues the policies of his father, while Lula hopes to continue his economic improvements and environmental wins. The main concerns of Brazilian voters are crime, affordability, corruption, and sovereignty.
It’s hard to not see the resemblance, especially now, where the United States is in a gloomy period of political uncertainty. Empty savings, rising costs and a warming planet are constant headlines, paired with insensitive speech and polarization projected by Capitol Hill. On top of voters who are unwilling to toss Trump aside for the sake of party loyalty, it’s hard to tell if this, too, will be the political future for the United States. Will our elections just whittle down to party loyalty and sticking it to the other rather than policy and character?
Let’s look at Brazil first.