U.S. President Donald Trump, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Miami, Florida, U.S., April 11, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President Donald Trump is seeing ominous signs to his power as anti-fascists in other nations successfully circumvent authoritarian hurdles to remove far right leaders from power. In a recent report, the situation facing Americans under Trump was compared to that of peoples in the nations of Brazil, Serbia and Hungary.
"In Brazil’s election on Sunday, democracy prevailed. After losing the 2022 election, Jair Bolsonaro pushed false claims that the election was rigged," reported The Fulcrum's Julie Roland and Marcelo Ramirez on Thursday. "Then, in a January 6th–like episode, his supporters stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace. Brazil’s electoral court banned Bolsonaro from office until 2030 for his attacks on the voting system, and its Supreme Court later sentenced him to 27 years for plotting a coup. Trump called him a “good man,” slapped a 50 percent tariff on the entire country in protest, and Bolsonaro’s son ran in his place, against President and Workers’ Party candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva."
Roland and Ramirez continued, "The algorithm picked a side. There were more than 1,100 reports of largely pro-Lula accounts being removed or throttled on Meta’s platforms, and Lula’s own ad account getting briefly suspended. Brazil’s electoral court had to give Meta 24 hours to prove it wasn’t playing favorites. Meta denied any favoritism, but few were convinced; hundreds protested outside Meta’s São Paulo headquarters. Americans have reason for doubt, too. During this month’s No Kings rallies, Meta disabled the No Kings Instagram account for more than four hours, blaming a bot-detection glitch."
Despite the algorithms being biased against Lula, the reporters noted that he managed to win in his runoff election.
"The same day, Serbia flipped," the journalists said. "After the concrete canopy of a newly renovated train station in Novi Sad collapsed in 2024, killing 16 people, students took to the streets…and never really left. The youth lobby doesn’t have deep pockets, but it has something money can’t buy: energy. Thanks to the highest voter turnout since Serbian independence, their youth-led party Student List won a majority. Aleksandar Vučić’s camp conceded. I’ve written before about why so many young people sit out elections, but Serbia just proved what happens when they don’t."
They added, "Earlier this year, community power won in Hungary, too. Viktor Orbán spent 16 years building a propaganda machine and empire, JD Vance flew in to campaign for him, and Trump promised American “economic might” only if Orbán’s party won, but grassroots politics prevailed. Orbán’s opponent, Péter Magyar, went town to town, village to village, for two years, including in Orbán’s rural base. Then, in April, Hungarians turned out in record numbers, winning Magyar’s party a two-thirds majority. Orbán conceded."