Bolsonaro gets rock star reception from US conservatives FMTNews FMTWorld
WASHINGTON: Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro won multiple standing ovations Saturday from US conservatives as he offered a glowing endorsement of his ally Donald Trump, sowed doubt over his own election defeat and attacked Covid vaccine mandates.
The 67-year-old Bolsonaro — effectively a warm-up act for Trump’s keynote address at the convention later Saturday — touched on many of the favourite talking points of the US right wing, from transgender rights to the threat of socialism. On the pandemic, he said he had “always defended freedom did not force anyone to be vaccinated in Brazil,” winning larger applause than any of the mainstream US conservatives who have addressed the four-day conference.
Pro-Bolsonaro rioters swarmed Brasilia days later, vandalising the presidential palace and other institutions, drawing parallels to the 2021 attack on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.