U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he speaks to members of the media on board Air Force One en route from Scotland, Britain, to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., July 29, 2025. REUTERS Evelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump has long been politically aligned with his Brazilian counterpart among right-wing executives, Jair Bolsonaro. Now a conservative media outlet is accusing Trump of prioritizing his friendship with the Bolsonaros over the interest of American justice.
Describing how Trump is aiding the defeated far right Brazilian presidential candidate by offering him asylum in the United States (he is facing charges in his home country), The Bulwark's Jonathan V. Last wrote on Wednesday that ""Marco Rubio arranged it. The secretary of state worked clandestinely to bend/ignore American laws to give this one particular suspected criminal safe haven. Then Rubio gave him a visa, after the fact."
He added, "And just like that—poof!—the Trump administration’s cavils about illegal immigrants, criminals, gang members, Tren de Aragua, the whole absurd megillah, vanished."
Last continued, "By now you realize I’m talking about Flávio Bolsonaro, who snuck into the United States with Sec. Rubio’s help and Donald Trump’s blessing. And by now you realize that Make America Great Again isn’t actually about “illegal immigration.”"
He pointed out this proves, "It was never about illegal immigration. It’s about racism, corruption, and turning America into a dictatorship. The same people who claimed that they wanted to stop America from looking like the Third World? What they wanted—more than anything—was to turn America into a Third World dictatorship."
From there Last concluded that Trump's claims of "America First" were always a disingenuous ploy to conceal what was in fact a desire for the strongest person in the room to dominate.
"Donald Trump does not like the liberal order," Last wrote. "He does not believe that laws should bind all men equally. He does not believe in inalienable rights, or due process, or checks and balances. He believes in will to power. This is why Trump admires and gets along well with autocrats and detests democratically elected liberal leaders. Trump is much more comfortable with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong-un than he is with the leaders of Denmark, or Japan, or Italy."
Moving back to the subject at hand, Last added that "it’s why he feels kinship with Viktor Orbán and Jair Bolsonaro—because they were aspiring dictators, like him. It’s why he’s now using the American government to protect Flávio. Donald Trump realizes that Flávio, too, is a kindred spirit. But here’s the big thing: Trump also realizes that when an aspiring dictator anywhere faces accountability, it’s a danger to aspiring dictators everywhere."