‘He can stay as long as he wants’: Trump backs Bolsonaro's stay in US after Brazil exit

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump expressed his support for Flávio Bolsonaro, who fled Brazil after losing the election, stating that he could stay in the United States as long as he wanted. At a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said, "No plans to meet, but I think he got treated very shabbily.

Very shabbily, so he can stay here as long as he wants." He also called Brazil's elections a "disgrace" and repeated his assertion that Bolsonaro had been wronged. Bolsonaro arrived in Miami with his family on Wednesday and has been under investigation for a sports betting matter and a probe into the production of a film about his father, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.

After arriving in Florida, Bolsonaro declared himself the "elected president" of Brazil and vowed to lead the opposition from the US. While Trump backed Bolsonaro and suggested he and his family could be granted political asylum in the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the Trump administration did not assist Bolsonaro in leaving Brazil.