Jair Bolsonaro has had a rough few years, including an election loss, a criminal case and a questionable outing at an embassy. So when he finally received the good news last week: an invitation to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration, his spirits were high.
“With President Trump’s invitation, I feel like I was a kid again. I’m fired up. I don’t even take Viagra anymore,” the former Brazilian president said in an interview Tuesday, with trademark second-rate humor. He spoke with “President Trump’s actions are something to be proud of, right? Who is Trump? The most important person in the world.”
But the reality is that plans can go awry.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has confiscated Bolsonaro’s passport as part of an investigation into whether he attempted to stage a coup after losing re-election in 2022. Bolsonaro had to apply for permission from a Supreme Court justice to attend Monday’s inauguration. his political nemesis.
On Thursday, a judge denied his request. Bolsonaro will watch from his home.
Arguably split-screen — Mr. Trump returns to the world’s most powerful job while Mr. Bolsonaro stays home by court order — are political doppelgangers since he was voted out and then claimed fraud. This will probably summarize the two people’s widely divergent paths.
In 2025, Trump could head to the White House and Bolsonaro to prison.
Mr. Bolsonaro faces three separate criminal investigations, and there are growing expectations in Brazil, including Mr. Bolsonaro himself, that he may soon be at the center of one of the most high-profile trials in Brazil’s history. are.
“I’m constantly being watched,” Bolsonaro, 69, said in a lively 90-minute interview in which he vented his frustrations, repeated conspiracy theories and confessed worries about his future. “I think the system doesn’t want to lock me up. It wants to get rid of me.”
But developments in the United States have given Bolsonaro new hope. He hopes Trump, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are leading a global effort for free speech that could lead to some changes in Brazil’s political landscape. He said he was doing it. “Social networks decide elections,” he says.
Bolsonaro has long accused Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes of censoring conservative voices and politically persecuting them. Judge Moraes has certainly become one of the most aggressive internet cops in the democracy, ordering social networks to block at least 340 accounts in Brazil since 2020, often keeping the reasons behind them under wraps.
That led to a clash with Musk last year, which resulted in a judge banning him from using social network X in Brazil. Mr. Musk eventually backed down. But the controversy has drawn global attention to Bolsonaro’s appeal to Brazil’s highest court.
That’s why Bolsonaro said he was pleased last week when Zuckerberg said he would “work with President Trump to resist” foreign governments that want “further censorship.” One of his main examples is the “secret courts” in Latin America that “can order companies to quietly back down.”
Brazilian authorities interpreted this as an attack over the ship’s bow. The next day, Judge Moraes warned Social networks can only operate in Brazil if they comply with Brazilian law, “regardless of the bravado of big tech executives,” it said.
Mr. Bolsonaro had a different view. “I like Zuckerberg,” he said. “Welcome to the world of good people and freedom.”
What concrete impact will Trump and tech executives have on his many legal and political challenges? Mr. Bolsonaro was vague. “I’m not going to give Mr. Trump any hints,” he said. “But I hope his politics really spills over into Brazil.”
Elizabeth Bagley, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Brazil, said Bolsonaro’s desire for the U.S. to come to his aid is unreasonable. He said the U.S. government would not interfere in other countries’ judicial proceedings.
Bolsonaro has bigger problems than censorship. Over the past year, Brazilian federal police have formally charged him with crimes in three separate cases.
In one case, police say Mr. Bolsonaro received money from the sale of jewelry he received as a gift from the state, including a diamond Rolex watch from Saudi Arabia. The aide said he later sold it at a mall in Pennsylvania. Bolsonaro blamed the situation on unclear rules about who owns these gifts.
Police soon said he took part in a scheme to falsify coronavirus vaccination records so he could travel to the United States. Bolsonaro said he had not been vaccinated but denied knowing about efforts to falsify records.
And in the most serious accusation, police said Bolsonaro “planned, acted on, and exercised direct and effective control” of the coup plot.
Federal police recently filed two reports detailing charges, including that he personally edited the national emergency declaration to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after winning the general election. (total of 1,105 pages) was published.
According to police, Bolsonaro proposed the plan to three senior Brazilian military officials, but abandoned the plan after two refused to participate.
In the interview, Bolsonaro vehemently denied planning a coup, saying he was after all transferring power, although he acknowledged discussing the executive order. “I don’t deny it,” he said. “But after the second conversation, I gave up.”
He said he considered declaring a state of emergency because he believed the election was stolen, but Judge Moraes blocked his party’s request to overturn the results. His team then realized that Congress would also have to approve the bill. “Forget it,” he said. “We lost.”
But police said there was a darker plan at the heart of the conspiracy: to assassinate Lula and his running mate, Judge Moraes. Police arrested five men on suspicion of planning the assassination, four of them members of Brazil’s elite military forces.
Police said the men were deployed to Judge Moraes’ neighborhood weeks before Lula’s inauguration. Police said they were preparing to kidnap the judge but abandoned their plans because Bolsonaro did not declare a state of emergency.
Police said Bolsonaro was aware of the plan. The closest connection police found was that the plans were printed at the presidential palace and later brought to the presidential palace.
Mr. Bolsonaro denied knowing anything about such a plot. “Whoever made this possible plan should respond,” he said. “There was no attempt on my part to execute the three officials.”
He later downplayed the charges. “Still, I think it was just a fantasy, a bravado. Nothing. This plan is impossible. It’s impossible,” he said. He admitted that he knew the alleged mastermind of the plot. “Everyone is responsible for their own actions,” he said. “But as far as I know, he took no action.”
Brazil’s attorney general is considering whether to prosecute the former president, which would likely lead to a high-profile trial and a prison sentence later this year.
Bolsonaro maintains his innocence but admits he fears for his freedom because Judge Moraes could convict him. “I’m not worried about being judged,” he said. “What I’m worried about is who will judge me.” After police confiscated his passport last year, he slept for two nights in the Hungarian embassy, apparently seeking asylum.
Brazilian courts have already taken action. Six months after Bolsonaro left office, Brazil’s electoral court, led by Judge Moraes, banned him from holding office until 2030, citing attacks on Brazil’s voting system.
Bolsonaro called the ruling a “rape of democracy” and said he was exploring ways to run in next year’s presidential election. He said two Supreme Court justices he nominated would head the electoral court before the election. The judges told him, “It’s ridiculous that I’m not qualified,” he said.
Opinion polls show Mr. Bolsonaro remains by far the most popular conservative candidate in Brazil, but many on the right are looking for new options. Some speculate about his sons. One, Flavio, 43, is an experienced senator, and the other, Eduardo, 40, is an English-speaking congressman with close ties to the MAGA movement.
But Bolsonaro is not yet ready to hand over the keys to his movement. For now, he said he only supports his sons remaining in Congress. “You need some experience to be president here and do the right thing,” he said, as his other son, Carlos, 42, looked on expressionlessly.
If Bolsonaro returns to politics, he said his administration would focus on deepening ties with the United States and withdrawing from China.
But first he wished he could. I’m just going to Washington this weekend. Mr Bolsonaro said of Mr Trump: “I hope to God I have the opportunity to shake his hand.” “You don’t need a photo if you just want to shake hands.”
