Senate Democrats warn Trump administration against Brazil election interference

A trio of Senate Democrats is warning the Trump administration against interference ahead of Brazil’s presidential elections, according to a letter obtained exclusively by The Hill.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday warned against U.S. meddling in the elections on Oct. 4.

“Will the Administration commit to recognizing the certified outcome of Brazil’s 2026 democratic elections and to supporting normal diplomatic relations with whichever candidate is freely and fairly chosen by the Brazilian people?” the senators asked, requesting that Rubio respond.

President Trump has relished the victories of his preferred right-wing candidates across Latin America but has so far held back an explicit endorsement in Brazil’s contest.

Still, he has lashed out at the country with tariffs in retaliation for the trial of his political ally: former right-wing, populist President Jair Bolsonaro. The former Brazilian leader was convicted in September 2025 on charges of inciting a coup to stay in power. Trump has recently extended favor to Bolsonaro’s son Flávio, one of 13 candidates running in the October election.

The Democratic senators singled out the State Department’s controversial senior adviser for Western Hemisphere affairs, Darren Beattie, as driving a pattern of aggressive actions against Latin America’s most populous democracy.

“Beattie, a noted far-right extremist and white supremacist, came into this post with a record of public statements signaling an overt ideological commitment to undermining Brazil’s democratic institutions and advancing the interests of the Brazilian far right,” they wrote.

Beattie served in Trump’s first administration but was fired from his position as a speechwriter after it was revealed that he attended a gathering of white supremacists. He founded the right-wing media outlet Revolver News, which reportedly amplified false conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Beattie also reportedly made disparaging comments about people of color online.

Beattie was appointed to his State Department role in February, avoiding Senate confirmation by using the term “senior adviser.” The department’s website says he has “acted as one of the department’s leading voices on Brazil policy as of November 2025.”

Beattie was denied a visa to enter Brazil in March as part of a diplomatic row between Washington and Brasília. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is also running in the October elections, said the visa was denied because the Trump administration blocked Brazil’s health minister from traveling to the U.S.

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry told Reuters at the time that Beattie had omitted or falsified “relevant information regarding the reason for the visit.”

The visa standoff was just one in a pattern of high-profile controversies between Trump and ‌Lula’s government.

Trump welcomed Flávio Bolsonaro into the Oval Office for a short meeting in May, and he then designated Brazil’s two biggest drug gangs as terrorist groups — a move Lula condemned as unacceptable interference in the country’s internal affairs.

Trump has also deployed tariffs against Brazil as retaliation. In July, the U.S. imposed 25 percent tariffs on Brazil over “unfair trade practices” that came after a yearlong investigation initiated in the aftermath of a spat between Trump and Lula .

“Today, rather than helping defend Brazilian democracy, the United States is using diplomatic, economic, and political pressure in ways that risk weakening the country’s democratic institutions, undermining confidence in Brazil’s electoral process, and inflicting further damage on our relationship with a strategic U.S. ally and trading partner,” the senators wrote in Monday’s letter.

“These actions reflect a broader and deeply troubling pattern of interference by the Trump Administration in recent electoral processes across Latin America. … This pattern risks not only undermining the integrity of electoral processes in individual countries but also progressively eroding public confidence in democratic processes and institutions across the region.”