Trump says Brazil’s election results ‘looked rigged’

President Trump dismissed Brazil’s presidential election results as “rigged” Monday after the South American country’s liberal President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won reelection .

“It looked terrible to me,” Trump said when asked if he thought Sunday’s election was fair.

“I didn’t take sides, but it looked like another rigged election, frankly,” the president said. “It was a terrible look for the world.”

“Elections have to be indisputable, and it looked very bad to me,” he added.

The incumbent Brazilian president, commonly known as Lula, defeated Flávio Bolsonaro, who is the son of Brazil’s former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, in Sunday’s runoff election. The elder Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup after he lost the 2022 presidential election to Lula.

While Trump did not formally endorse the younger Bolsonaro, he endorsed his father in 2022. Lula has also been an outspoken critic of Trump, and his win in South America is seen as a victory for the political left, which has experienced a string of defeats on the continent in recent years.

Trump and Lula have exchanged a number of barbs over the years.

Last year, Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazil in part over the prosecution of the elder Bolsonaro. Lula hit back at Trump in an opinion piece from The New York Times in September, calling the president’s tariffs “illogical” and misguided.

The two presidents met face to face in the White House last May, while the younger Bolsonaro met with Trump later that month.