Trump Calls Brazil Election Rigged After Lula Defeats Bolsonaro as Brazilian Stocks Sink 18%

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a stunning comeback victory in Brazil's presidential runoff, defeating right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro in what one financial outlet described as the first such reversal since 1989. Lula had lost the first round but prevailed in the runoff, sending Brazilian stocks down more than 18% as the result reversed a rally that had built since Bolsonaro's unexpected first-round lead earlier in October.

President Donald Trump, posting on Truth Social, declared the result looked like "another rigged election," adding that elections "have to be indisputable" and that it was "a terrible look for the world." Trump offered no evidence for the claim. Bolsonaro initially moved to contest the outcome but reversed course, abandoning plans to seek an annulment and announcing instead that he would file a lawsuit accusing Lula of abuse of power. Brazil's Supreme Court subsequently ordered Bolsonaro to surrender his passport. Brazil's Liberal Party formally accepted the defeat, and Lula now faces a hostile Congress alongside a Trump administration that had publicly backed his rival.

On the same day, Trump announced a $1 million reward for anyone who reports voter fraud, in past elections or the upcoming November 3 midterms, that leads to an arrest and conviction. The offer came eight days before the congressional midterms, which will decide control of a closely divided Congress. Trump's DOJ separately announced plans to deploy federal election monitors to polling places across four Pennsylvania counties. A federal court rejected a separate Trump administration request to require California to set aside mail-in ballots from roughly 20,000 people the government identified as potential noncitizens, with an appeals panel expressing skepticism of the noncitizen voting claims.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released the same evening found Trump's public approval at 32%, up one percentage point from a record low the prior week. Registered voters favored Democrats over Republicans by 47% to 36% on a generic congressional ballot. Prediction markets set the probability of Democrats winning the Senate at 65%.