Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, a candidate in Brazil's presidential race, travelled to Washington this week for a sequence of high-level meetings with U.S. officials after an Oval Office visit with President Donald Trump. On Wednesday he said he held separate discussions with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The visits come as Bolsonaro manages a political controversy that emerged this month when he acknowledged asking a banker, now in custody, for money to finance a film about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro. The senator has denied any misconduct in connection with the request.
Bolsonaro told reporters the topics addressed during his Washington meetings included measures to fight organized crime, the status and supply of rare earths, and issues tied to freedom of expression. He also said conversations touched on the health of his father, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest after being convicted of plotting a coup.
The publicity around the fundraising episode has had an observable effect on his campaign metrics. After the case became public this month, he lost ground in opinion polling, although, according to the senator, he remains largely statistically tied with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in hypothetical second-round match-ups for the October election.
Bolsonaro's account of the meetings notes the inclusion of both security- and governance-related topics. He specifically cited discussions on combating organized crime and on rare earths, a strategic resource. He also highlighted freedom of expression as part of the agenda, and raised his father's health in the Oval Office session with President Trump.
President Lula also had a White House meeting earlier this month, a fact Bolsonaro referenced when describing the Oval Office conversation. Beyond the personal and campaign ramifications, Bolsonaro's Washington engagements underscored the U.S. government's willingness to engage individually with prominent Brazilian political figures during an active election cycle.
Bolsonaro continues to deny any wrongdoing related to the fundraising matter involving the jailed banker. The senator's campaign faces the dual task of answering domestic scrutiny over the financing matter while pursuing foreign meetings that put policy topics such as rare earths and organized crime on the bilateral agenda.
Clear summary
Flavio Bolsonaro met with President Trump in the Oval Office and later with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington. The visits followed revelations that he sought funds from a jailed banker for a film about his father; he denies wrongdoing. Discussions in Washington covered organized crime, rare earths, freedom of expression and his father's health, who is under house arrest after a conviction.