Bannon Urges Trump To Cut Ties With Brazil As Trump Calls Lula’s Win “Another Rigged Election”

Steve Bannon is calling on the Trump administration to cut diplomatic and trade ties with Brazil, Gazeta do Povo reports. In a Monday episode of his show War Room, Bannon described Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s re-election as a “theft” and called his government illegitimate. He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio should speak out first, then the president.

The president has since weighed in himself. Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews before a flight to a Mississippi rally, Trump called the result “another rigged election, frankly,” and said “it looked very bad to me,” offering no evidence, the Boston Globe reports. “Elections have to be indisputable,” he added.

Lula won Sunday’s runoff with 64,256,232 votes, or 51.79%, to 59,826,041 (48.21%) for Flávio Bolsonaro, a margin of about 4.4 million, according to the electoral court’s count as reported by the Rio Times. In the first round on October 4, Bolsonaro had led 47.03% to 45.16%. As we reported, Brazilian stocks cratered on the result.

Bannon’s case rests on how the day ended. Flávio Bolsonaro said in an address Sunday night that it was “impossible to recognize the outcome of this election given what happened today” and that his lawyers would petition to annul it, the Latin Times reports. His objection is the extension: as polls were closing, Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin, Lula’s former defense lawyer, ordered voting kept open two more hours nationwide. The petitions behind the order came from Lula’s coalition, which cited transport failures in some municipalities, while Bolsonaro’s camp pointed to storms and power cuts, the Rio Times says.

Bolsonaro also claimed his party’s monitors were barred from the electoral court’s secure counting room. The Latin Times says no documentary evidence for that had been presented, and that annulment requires proof that a specific irregularity materially changed the count, a high bar.

Brazil’s own institutions are not following him. Electoral court president Kassio Nunes Marques recognized Lula’s win on Sunday, and early signs from regional leaders, conservatives among them, suggest the result will be respected, according to the Globe. Analyst Brian Winter called it “a really uphill battle for Flavio Bolsonaro.”

Washington’s relationship with Lula was already strained. In July, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on most Brazilian imports under Section 301, with Rubio writing on X that it was Lula “putting his own ego ahead of making a deal.” The Trade Representative said a year of talks had not resolved the issues, though the U.S. remained open to more.

Apart from Trump’s remarks, the Rio Times found no White House or State Department statement recognizing or disputing the result. Folha de S.Paulo reported, per Gazeta do Povo, that the State Department had a congratulatory statement ready and held it once Bolsonaro refused to concede. The same report says Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Media lawyer Martin De Luca both criticized the voting extension.