President Donald Trump took aim at the way ballots are counted in the United States in a late-night Truth Social post on Sunday, pointing to Brazil’s presidential election as he declared, “Voting in America is CORRUPT.”
The post came as Flávio Bolsonaro, a Trump ally and the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, pulled ahead of incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election.
With virtually all ballots counted, Bolsonaro captured about 47% of the valid vote, while Lula took roughly 45%.
Neither candidate crossed the 50% threshold needed for an outright win, setting up a head-to-head runoff between the two on October 25.
In his post, Trump highlighted how quickly Brazil’s results were made available, noting they came “shortly after the vote closed, on the SAME DAY!”
The president then turned his focus to elections in the United States.
Trump called out Detroit, Philadelphia and California, claiming without evidence that officials in Democratic-controlled jurisdictions “take weeks to Rig” elections.
He offered no evidence to support his claim of corruption before closing his post with: “Voting in America is CORRUPT!!!”
The post initially appeared to mix up Brazil with India. Trump wrote that 125 million people had voted in the first round of “India’s Presidential Election.”
It was Brazil, not India, that held a presidential election on Sunday. The president later reposted the message with the correct country.
Brazil uses a nationwide electronic voting system, which allows results to be tallied and transmitted quickly once polls close.
Elections in the U.S., on the other hand, are run under differing state laws. Those include varying rules on when mail ballots can be processed and counted.
Those differences can mean complete results take longer to come in for some jurisdictions.
Trump has repeatedly criticized mail-in voting and has pushed for stricter federal election rules heading into the November midterms.
His latest comments come after the Supreme Court dealt his administration a setback last month over its effort to impose new restrictions on mail ballots.
The Sunday post marks the latest in a string of attacks by the president on how elections are conducted across the country, this time using the speed of Brazil’s vote count as a point of comparison.
In Brazil, meanwhile, attention now shifts to the October 25 runoff, where Bolsonaro, who finished ahead in the first round, will once again face off against Lula, the sitting president.
The close first-round margin, roughly 47% to 45%, sets the stage for a high-stakes second round between the Trump-aligned Bolsonaro and the incumbent.
Back in the U.S., Trump’s renewed criticism of mail-in voting and ballot-counting timelines comes as the nation heads toward the November midterms, with the president continuing to press his case for tighter federal election rules despite last month’s loss at the Supreme Court.
