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The
comments in an interview with news magazine Veja could add to
tensions with Washington as Bolsonaro seeks to overtake leftist
rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of a Brazilian
presidential runoff vote on Oct. 30,
Bolsonaro told Veja that he had a good in-person meeting with
U.S. President Joe Biden in June. But in remarks likely to rile
the White House, he said many of the issues presently bedeviling
the world would not be occurring if Trump were still president.
"Some think that the war in Ukraine would not have happened if
he were still in power," Bolsonaro said. "I agree with that."
He did not give further details.
Bolsonaro has long admired Trump, a fellow right-wing populist,
and saw his international standing diminish after the 2020 U.S.
election. Bolsonaro was among the last world leaders to
recognize Biden's victory, after repeating Trump's false
allegations of U.S. electoral fraud.
Trump endorsed Bolsonaro head of last Sunday's first round of
the presidential election, saying Bolsonaro was "one of the
great presidents of any country in the world ... respected by
everybody throughout the world."
Despite his better-than-expected performance in the first round,
Bolsonaro raised fresh doubts in the interview about the
security of Brazil's voting system, without evidence, fanning
fears that he may refuse to accept defeat.
In the interview with Veja, he kept up his unfounded questioning
of Brazil's electronic voting system, declining to say he would
accept the result if he lost in the second round.
"There's a feeling in public opinion that there was something
dodgy," he said. "I'm always worried."
In the wide-ranging interview, Bolsonaro also committed to more
privatizations if he is re-elected and said his regular sparring
partner, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, "has all the
symptoms of a dictator."
He said he could look at a proposal to increase the number of
Supreme Court justices after the election.
Bolsonaro pledged to carry out more privatizations if he is
re-elected, although he did not say which state-owned firms
would be up for sale.
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Brad Haynes and
Alistair Bell)
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