Lula calls Flávio Bolsonaro 'bad luck' for Trump as rival turns up at Mar-a-Lago

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva mocked his defeated rival Flávio Bolsonaro, saying he "made Trump lose" after fleeing to the United States, and warned that he will have to return to Brazil to face legal cases. Bolsonaro attended a conservative event at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took aim at his defeated election rival Flávio Bolsonaro and at the U.S. midterm results in the same breath. "Flávio Bolsonaro is bad luck. He made Trump lose. He arrived in the United States, and Trump lost," Lula said. "He went there looking for protection. You'll see what protection you'll get. You'll have to return to Brazil to face the legal cases against you."

In this video, Lula links Bolsonaro's arrival in Florida to the Republicans' midterm defeat days later and says the senator will eventually have to answer to Brazilian courts. Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, lost last month's runoff to Lula by 3.6 percentage points after winning 59.8 million votes, and then flew with his family to Florida.

"Brazil does not accept being anyone's backyard"

Lula framed his own victory as part of a wider political shift. "In the same week that I won, Netanyahu lost in Israel, and it seems that my friend Trump is losing in the United States. So it was an extraordinary victory for the Brazilian people. It was a lesson to the world," he said. "The Brazilian people woke up to say: 'Brazil does not accept being anyone's backyard.'"

Trump has embraced Bolsonaro since his defeat. At a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said Bolsonaro "got treated very shabbily" and "can stay here as long as he wants," and called Brazil's election "a disgrace" without presenting evidence of fraud. Bolsonaro has said he traveled to the United States without government assistance but has declined to say how he left Brazil.

Here, Lula describes his re-election as "an extraordinary victory for the Brazilian people" and casts the results in Brazil, Israel and the United States as a lesson for the world, while still referring to Trump as "my friend."

Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago

On Thursday, Bolsonaro attended a conservative political event at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, underscoring his close ties to the U.S. president's political circle. His presence in the United States could become a fresh point of tension between Washington and Brasília as Lula prepares to begin his fourth term.

The footage shows Bolsonaro at the Mar-a-Lago event on Thursday evening. Lula's allies have reportedly seen the episode as politically beneficial to the re-elected president, while Lula has avoided a direct diplomatic confrontation with Trump over it.

Videos: Clash Report / X. Photo: Ricardo Stuckert / Wikimedia Commons (archive)

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Lula calls Flávio Bolsonaro 'bad luck' for Trump as rival turns up at Mar-a-Lago