Flávio Bolsonaro thanked the US president on Wednesday for what he called a warm welcome.
He had left Brazil with his family despite a travel ban. Pictures later showed him in Miami stepping off a private plane, which, according to The New York Times, had been arranged by a White House communications officer said to have close ties to the Bolsonaro clan.
The newspaper’s sources say Bolsonaro’s brother Eduardo, who lives in Texas, had been in contact with the man and that the plan to fly the election loser out was drawn up on Monday, after Bolsonaro was asked to hand over his passports.
Quick file
According to the newspaper, official documents show that the former presidential candidate was allowed to enter the United States with a canceled Brazilian diplomatic passport. He is now believed to be getting the same fast track through the system as Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has close ties to the Trump administration and was granted permanent residency in July after his application was expedited, according to The New York Times.
In his first statement in the United States, Flávio Bolsonaro refused to admit defeat, calling himself "the rightfully elected president of Brazil" on social media and announcing that he intends to act as opposition leader in his self-imposed exile.
"The criminals who stole the Brazilian election have established a tyranny," he claimed about the election in which Lula da Silva was re-elected.
Trump: Shameful
Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he "didn't want to interfere in" the election results, but on Thursday told reporters outside the White House that the election was "a disgrace" for Brazil.
I watched the election, I didn't get involved. I was asked by the president, the sitting president, not to take sides. I didn't, but what happened is shameful.
