Brazilian senator Flavio Bolsonaro has landed in the US after he lost the recent Brazilian elections.
A Trump advisor told CNN that US President Donald Trump approved allowing him entry into the country.
Trump's administration officials said that they were aware that Bolsonaro had roughly 24 hours to surrender his passport and told the defeated Brazilian candidate that he would be allowed into the country. He landed in the US with his wife and daughters.
Bolsonaro is under several investigations in the country, including for alleged acts of corruption, money laundering and currency evasion. It is not clear where in the US he landed.
Sources told CNN that Brazil’s federal police cancelled Bolsonaro’s Brazilian and Italian passports after he failed to surrender them. Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had ordered the senator to turn in his passport within 24 hours on Monday. He was also banned from leaving Brazil. On Monday, the senator even denied that he intended to flee in an Instagram video.
On October 25, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took 51.8 per cent of valid votes to Bolsonaro’s 48.2 per cent, according to Brazil’s Superior electoral court. The margin was 4,430,191 votes.
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsanaro also had travelled to the US two months after he lost the election to president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in 2022.
The senator will be out of office from February 202 for the first time in 24 years.
Before he left, the senator's brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, reportedly advised him to flee Brazil if he lost the elections. Eduardo had been living in the US since February 2025.
According to an Argentinian newspaper, the senator reportedly left Brazil through the border with Puerto Iguazú, Argentina. The Argentine government, however, said in a statement that it has “no record of Flávio Bolsonaro entering” the country.
According to FlightRadar24, the aircraft flew from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazú and arrived in the city at 11:45 PM Brasília time.
The Trump administration has not formally recognised Lula’s victory. On Tuesday, they stated they would grant the senator a visa.
Other Brazilian conservatives in exile in the US include former Brazilian intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem and podcaster Paulo Figueiredo.
