Trump is on the cusp of toppling Brazil’s leftist giant

In May, President Trump welcomed Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro to the White House. That meeting changed everything. Last Sunday, Bolsonaro won in the first round with 47 percent of the vote, ahead of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who received 45 percent. 

What happened in Brazil is no coincidence. Following Trump’s return, at least seven Latin American countries have taken an unprecedented turn to the right. Twenty years of socialism in Bolivia came to an end. Dictator Nicolás Maduro was captured. Chinese influence over the Panama Canal waned. The Shield of the Americas Security Alliance was formed. 

Yet the jewel in the crown arrived this Sunday with Bolsonaro’s first-round victory in Brazil’s elections. President Trump put it this way: “Well, it’s a big victory: close, but a very, very big victory. Amazing, actually.”

What happened in Brazil wasn’t just an election; it was a landslide defeat. Although he has not yet lost his office, Lula has already lost control of Brazil’s Congress, Senate, districts and mayoralties large and small. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Lula’s predecessor as president, now heads into the Oct. 25 runoff as a heavy favorite.

The stories of Trump and Bolsonaro’s father, former........

© The Hill