Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Trump said the election had looked terrible and suggested that its outcome was questionable, a day after Brazilian voters returned Lula to office for another term.
“It looked like another rigged election, frankly,” Trump said. “I didn’t take sides, but it was a terrible look for the world. Elections have to be indisputable, and it looked really bad to me.”
Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court formally announced Lula’s victory following Sunday’s runoff against right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Its published count gave Lula 64,256,232 votes, or 51.79 per cent of valid ballots, against Bolsonaro’s 59,826,041 votes, equivalent to 48.21 per cent.
The difference of more than 4.4 million votes gave Lula a fourth presidential term. The official declaration was made by electoral court president Kassio Nunes Marques, who congratulated both candidates for participating in the contest.
Trump did not identify particular polling stations, counting procedures or documented discrepancies to support his charge. His comments therefore stood in contrast to the declared result from Brazil’s election administration, which oversees voting and tabulation across the country.
Asked about the Brazilian contest, Trump maintained that he had not supported either candidate. He nevertheless criticised the appearance of the election, saying he had watched the process and considered it deeply troubling. His remarks did not amount to a substantiated finding of electoral fraud.
Flávio Bolsonaro, the defeated Liberal Party candidate, initially refused to acknowledge the result and called for the election to be annulled. He subsequently said he would organise the opposition, leaving questions about his next political steps after a closely fought campaign.
The senator is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who maintained close political ties with Trump during his presidency. Trump had welcomed Flávio Bolsonaro to the White House earlier this year and publicly praised him, although he insisted on Monday that he had not taken sides in the election.
Trump’s intervention added an international dimension to the controversy surrounding the vote. Lula has had disagreements with Washington over trade and foreign policy, while the Trump administration has celebrated electoral successes by right-wing politicians elsewhere in Latin America.
The result was recognised by several foreign leaders who congratulated Lula and indicated their willingness to continue working with Brazil. Among them were Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Brazil’s electoral authorities released figures covering the nationwide contest rather than relying on competing campaign estimates. More than 128 million voters cast ballots in the second round, from an electorate exceeding 158 million, according to the Superior Electoral Court.
Abstention was approximately 19.2 per cent, compared with 21.08 per cent in the first round. The electoral court also said it had made more than 95,000 voting locations available across the country to facilitate access.
The court acknowledged operational complications on polling day after a Supreme Federal Court order extended voting from 5pm to 7pm at stations still open. Nunes Marques said the decision required adjustments to electoral systems and counting arrangements, as well as additional safeguards for election workers.
Those administrative adjustments were described publicly by the electoral authority, but they did not constitute evidence supporting Trump’s allegation that the presidential result was manipulated. The court announced the outcome after counting votes from the second-round ballot.
Lula, representing the Workers’ Party, had trailed Bolsonaro in the first round on 4 October but overtook him in the runoff. Electoral figures showed Bolsonaro receiving 47.03 per cent of valid votes in the first round, compared with Lula’s 45.16 per cent.
The president’s victory was also confirmed through official announcements by Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies and Senate, whose accounts reflected the electoral court’s declared totals. Lula is scheduled to begin his next term in January 2027.
The legislature also noted that the winning margin exceeded Lula’s approximately 2.1 million vote advantage over Jair Bolsonaro in the presidential election held in 2022.
Nunes Marques said more than 95,000 polling locations had been provided to reduce travel distances for voters. Electoral officials also monitored the availability of free public transport intended to help citizens reach polling stations on voting day.
