Just coincidence, right?
As Brazil looks to the future, its president looks to Trump playbook
"Ten months before the next presidential election, Brazil is more polarized than at any point in recent memory, with political conflicts and raging culture wars souring friendships, wrecking family gatherings and spilling into the streets.
At the center is Bolsonaro, 66, a far-right nationalist who rode into office three years ago on a wave of populist anger over corruption and who now insists there are only three possibilities for his future: jail, death or reelection.
Like former President Donald Trump, whom Bolsonaro has described as his "idol," the Brazilian leader has downplayed the coronavirus, stoked racial resentments, relaxed environmental protections and rallied his supporters to the nation's capital to protest his perceived enemies in Congress and the courts.
With the help of Trump strategist Steve Bannon, he has already begun sowing doubt about electoral fraud in the event that he loses.
IN CASE YOU DOUBT THE CONNECTION, THIS IS FROM SEPTEMBER:
"Former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon, indicted on charges of fraud and money laundering last summer, is plotting a political comeback. And going by his appearance last week at a madcap “cyber symposium” hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, he seems to have his sights set on Brazil. South America’s largest and most populous country could be on the precipice of seeing its 2022 election turned into MAGA’s last stand.
Lindell’s cyber symposium was dedicated to the baseless notion that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was somehow stolen from Donald Trump. Bannon gave a curious performance. First he criticized Lindell for not providing enough evidence for the otherwise “very powerful” stolen election theory. Then he warned that a different election might be at risk: the reelection of far-right authoritarian president Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil.
Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, a Brazilian congressman, also attended Lindell’s conspiratorial shindig. He was there to draw specious parallels between his country’s electoral system and that of the United States—a bad comparison, since Latin America’s largest nation has a world-class electronic voting system, mandatory voting, and not a single credible case of fraud in 25 years. "
