DEMOCRACY WATCHBolsonaro, Trump Election Cases Share Similarities, but Not Rulings
Donald Trump and former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro both posed a serious threat to their countries’ democracies: they both worked hard to diminish voters’ confidence in democracy by routinely denigrating and discrediting their countries’ electoral processes even before a single vote had been cast; each succeeded in persuading many of their supporters to believe in the Big Lie – referring to a fictitious, imaginary “rigged” election as the reason for their loss; and then each tried to stay in power even though both had lost the election. Last June, Brazil’s electoral court blocked Bolsonaro from running for elections for eight years for publicly denying the legitimacy of the 2022 presidential election. The U.S. Supreme Court, sidestepping the question of whether or not Trump engaged in or provided aid and comfort to an insurrection, recently ruled that states cannot bar Trump from running for another term, and that it was a decision for Congress to make.
The similarities are striking, though the legal outcomes were different.
A far-right, law-and-order populist, Jair Bolsonaro was dubbed by journalists as the “Trump of the tropics” for his tone and style as well as his policies. The one-term Brazilian president lost his re-election bid in 2022, insisting that voting machines were rigged. His supporters stormed Brazil’s Congress on Jan. 8, 2023, to protest what they called a stolen election.
Last June, Brazil’s electoral court blocked Bolsonaro from running for elections for eight years for publicly denying the legitimacy of the vote, and he is being investigated for his alleged role in plotting a coup to remain in power.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that states cannot bar Donald Trump from running for another term, overturning a decision in Colorado that allowed officials there to kick the former president off the primary ballot due to his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Justices ruled that the 14th Amendment does not empower states to make such decisions about presidential candidates.
The Gazetteinterviewed Jean Vilbert, former Brazilian judge and law professor and Harvard doctoral candidate, about the power of the Brazilian electoral court, the nation’s election laws, and lessons learned from the Bolsonaro and Trump cases. This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
Former Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro was barred from running for office by Brazil’s electoral court. How did this happen?
Bolsonaro became president in 2019, two years after Trump, and their paths to power were very similar. Like Trump, Bolsonaro used strong rhetoric and a populist discourse by inciting fear and anger to reach out to the rich and the poor alike, and like Trump, Bolsonaro promised to bring back order and law.
But where their paths differ is, of course, in the fact that Bolsonaro was barred from running for office. In Bolsonaro’s case, when he realized he could lose his re-election bid in 2022, he claimed that the electronic voting machines were rigged. According to Brazil’s election officials, Bolsonaro’s attacks on the integrity of Brazil’s voting system were a violation of Brazil’s election laws, and consequently, they barred him from seeking office for the next eight years, until 2030.
