Flávio Bolsonaro stays in the U.S. after defeat, and 62% disapprove of the trip, Quaest poll says

This is a translation of the original article in Portuguese. Read the original (Português).

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) remains in the United States after losing the second round of the presidential election to Lula, and most Brazilians disapprove of the trip. A Quaest poll released on Sunday (8) shows that 62% consider the decision to leave the country wrong, against 29% who approve of it.

Among those surveyed, 56% say the senator left to escape the Brazilian justice system; 35% believe he sought protection from political persecution. The survey also finds that 59% disapprove of Flávio’s challenge to the election results and that 61% consider the election clean and fair, while 30% believe in fraud. The poll interviewed 2,004 people between October 30 and November 2, with a margin of error of two percentage points, according to the newspapers Estado de Minas and Valor Econômico.

In the United States, the senator’s presence has taken on another focus. In an interview with the American newspaper The Washington Post, reported by Estado de Minas, Flávio said he does not know what his next steps will be and stated that his priority is to regularize his immigration status. He again raised suspicions of electoral fraud without presenting evidence. The report recalled the decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) that ordered the surrender of the senator’s passports in a money laundering investigation.

The American newspaper The New York Times also cited the investigations against him in Brazil, according to the newspaper A Gazeta, which further points out that his staying in the country could be questioned.

While the American press focuses on his legal and immigration situation, the Brazilian press is following the effect of his absence on politics. The newspaper O Globo reports that Flávio is struggling to lead the opposition from a distance and that allies complain about unanswered messages and calls. He remains in contact with Senator Rogério Marinho, the PL candidate for president of the Senate, and with the party’s president, Valdemar Costa Neto. According to the newspaper Extra, the senator is in Miami.

In Florida, Flávio attended CPAC, a conservative event held at Mar-a-Lago, where he met actor Jim Caviezel. He says he will serve his Senate term until February 2027 and voted remotely on the PEC da Segurança Pública, which has opened a debate over whether the vote was valid, according to O Globo.

The Brazilian community in the United States, meanwhile, voted mostly for Democrats in the midterm elections. An AtlasIntel poll cited by A Gazeta shows that, in a community of about 950,000 people, more than half of voters chose Democratic candidates, and most disapprove of the Trump administration.

Disapproval among Brazilians, however, is lower than among Latinos in general: 51.8% of Brazilians disapprove of the Trump administration, compared with 67.9% of Latinos overall. The actions of ICE, the American immigration agency, were the point of greatest convergence between the groups. In Massachusetts, Democrats were re-elected; in Texas, the state’s first Latina governor in history was elected.

Reporting from A Gazeta (p. 8 (nacional); p. 2 e p. 7 (Estados Unidos)), Estado de Minas (p. 4 (nacional); p. 5 (Estados Unidos)), Valor Econômico (p. 18 (nacional)), Folha de S.Paulo (p. 10 (nacional)), A Tarde (p. 10 (nacional)), A Tribuna de Santos (p. 11 (nacional)), Jornal de Brasília (p. 7 (nacional)), O Globo (p. 8 (Estados Unidos; Mar-a-Lago)), Extra (p. 7 (Miami, Estados Unidos)).