Flávio Bolsonaro, Son of Former Brazil President, Meets With Trump at White House

Brazilian Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the nation’s convicted former president, arrived in Washington on Tuesday to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House ahead of his nation’s October election.

Bolsonaro is running for president but arrived without a public agenda. He posted a photo of himself standing beside Trump in the Oval Office on social media. He also posted a video saying he would make another post elaborating on his meeting.

Bolsonaro came under scrutiny on May 13, when messages leaked by The Intercept from a federal police investigation showed he received about $12 million from Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of the shuttered Banco Master. Vorcaro is accused of defrauding bank customers out of hundreds of millions of dollars after persuading them to make shady investments. Brazil’s federal police estimate the total fraud at 12 billion reais, roughly $2.3 billion. 

Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that the money was directed toward a biographical film about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro. 

Brazil’s Supreme Court in September 2025 convicted the elder Bolsonaro of attempting to overturn the government following his 2022 election loss to sitting President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula, and sentenced him to 27 years in prison—making him the first former Brazilian president convicted of a coup attempt. Secretary of State Marco Rubio immediately condemned the decision, vowing the United States would respond. Washington’s reaction, which included a tariff on Brazilian imports, underscored how thoroughly the Bolsonaro family’s fate had become entangled with American politics.

The elder Bolsonaro’s health deteriorated sharply in the months that followed. Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled in March that he could serve his sentence under house arrest due to his physical condition, though the arrangement was set to be reassessed within 90 days. He was admitted to DF Star hospital in March for bronchopneumonia—one of several health problems he has faced since sustaining a near-fatal stab wound during the 2018 campaign. 

His son, Flavio, has decried what he characterized as a prevailing culture of “political persecution” within Brazil, which he said was particularly directed against conservatives.

“[Jair Bolsonaro] was convicted not because of corruption, money laundering, or violent crime,” he told EpochTV’s Jan Jekeliek in April. “He was convicted for standing up for truth and not kowtowing to a system that persecuted and interfered with his administration.”

As a result of his conviction, the elder Bolsonaro is prohibited from running for president until 2030.

“Given he is now barred from running for president, he has named me as the candidate,” the younger Bolsonaro said. 

Flávio Bolsonaro accepted the endorsement. He has described his entire campaign as a battle against a system he says is designed to destroy the Brazilian right.

“Brazil is not going through an easy moment. We don’t have a healthy democracy in our country,” he said. “There is a lot of political persecution, especially against those on the right, symbolized by President Jair Bolsonaro, the greatest victim of this lawfare.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.