President-elect Donald Trump has invited Jair Bolsonaro to his upcoming inauguration, but the former Brazilian president may not be able to attend — he surrendered his passport to authorities while under investigation for allegedly helping plan and participate in a 2023 coup attempt in an effort to remain in office.
“My lawyer, Dr. Paulo Bueno, has already forwarded a request to Minister Alexandre de Moraes for me to have my passport returned so that I can attend this honorable and important historical event,” Bolsonaro wrote on X in Portuguese Wednesday, the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 8 coup attempt.
A week after the inauguration of current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, pro-Bolsonaro supporters stormed and ransacked government buildings in Brasilia, which has led to a slew of legal issues and comparisons to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol as Brazil’s Federal Police accuse Bolsonaro of involvement in the scheme. The former president has denied any wrongdoing.
In a video attached to Bolsonaro’s post on X, his son draws those same comparisons. “Donald Trump certainly identifies himself with Jair Bolsonaro in this sense because he was a victim of it in the United States,” Eduardo Bolsonaro said in Portuguese, according to a translation attached to the video.
Bolsonaro and Trump have a long history dating back to Trump’s first term in office when Trump invited the right-wing leader to the Oval Office to discuss toppling Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. Trump and Bolsonaro both sparked loyalist conservative movements within their countries, Bolsonaro brought Trump’s “fake news” slogan to Brazil, and Trump frequently urged Brazilians to support Bolsonaro when he was up for reelection.
Aitor Hernández-Morales contributed to this report.
