Oct 28 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he approved of Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro coming to the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election.
Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States, with a senior US State Department official saying it would grant entry visas to him and his family, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
“Well, I would approve,” Trump told reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on his return from a campaign trip to Texas, adding that he had heard Bolsonaro was in Argentina.
Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left Brazil after refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports.
“I think they’re fine people,” Trump said. “The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible. It’s gotten bad reviews. You look at what happened to their market.”
He added, “I think it’s so terrible to see it. I didn’t take sides, you know. I know them both. I know Lula. I know Flavio a little bit. I know the father very well.”
Trump was referring to former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom he has previously alleged to have been a victim of judicial persecution in Brazil.
“The father was treated really badly. I thought, but I wasn’t involved,” Trump added. “That’s Brazil. It’s a different country.”
Trump said he hoped to soon meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and that he thought a lot of progress had been made towards resolving the war in Ukraine.
Putin has said Russia was ready to resume US-mediated talks with Ukraine next month, calling for security guarantees for both countries and an overall security framework for Europe.
Trump has a meeting on nuclear disarmament scheduled with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he added. He is also set to visit the Philippine capital of Manila in November to attend a summit of regional bloc ASEAN.
Asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party losing seats in elections, Trump said he had heard that Netanyahu did very well.
“You know, it’s pretty close, which was very well,” Trump added. “Because I think when the endorsement went out, it helped him a lot, but I actually heard he did pretty well. It might be winning or tie.”
Trump faces mid-term elections in the United States next week, with polls showing the Democrats may retake control of one or both houses from the president’s Republicans.
(Reporting by Steve Holland in Washington and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Clarence Fernandez)
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