President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva clinched victory out of thin air in Brazil’s weekend election, spurring his challenger to deny the results and the United States to demur from commenting on them. Lula won reelection in the results published overnight Monday, claiming 51.7% of the vote against Flavio Bolsonaro’s 48.2% share. It was an…
Page A223From§Eachthe afternoon edition — 26 October 2026
U.S. shut consulates, moved to fund a campaign against Brazil's court, lost by four million, calls it rigged
As it ran on the front
Today we are making a foreign election, American-style, which means it is cooked at home and eaten somewhere else. On Sunday Brazil re-elected Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the runoff, 51.7 percent against Flavio Bolsonaro's 48.2, a margin of four million votes, with the results published overnight on Monday. On Monday the American president called the election likely rigged. Bolsonaro is demanding the victory be annulled.
You will need an American social network's algorithm, a consulate with its shutters suddenly down, and a push from Washington to put money into a campaign against Brazil's supreme court.…
Clive Shutters down. Mine have been down a fortnight and nobody at this table has knocked to ask what is being written behind them.
Gary Nothing is behind them. The shutter came off in spring and it is under the bike. I could have that door off in four minutes.
Begin at the end of September, when Brazil's own spy agency confirmed the existence of interference from the United States as well as Russia, the first round four days off. On 1 October the Guardian revealed the funding plan, and Brazil's attorney general, Jorge Messias, wrote that meddling "cannot be tolerated" and called the report "an important alert for Brazilian sovereignty". Two days later Lula's campaign asked for the sudden shutdown of American consular services to be looked into as interference in Brazilian elections.
Rob Sovereignty. This kitchen had sovereignty before the rota, and I am the only one who ever kept to it, which no one has once mentioned.
Keith You mention it weekly. There is an angle in this, though: somebody out there wants flags printed, and I know a man who prints by Thursday.
Now fold in the algorithm. On 23 October research showed Meta's was actively boosting Bolsonaro, and Pramila Jayapal and Bernie Sanders put questions to Mark Zuckerberg about it. Then Sunday came and the whole thing went on the floor in front of the kitchen. Gary, hold this.
Gary I am holding it. I have held everything in this house since the boiler, and the one who writes in the dark has held a pen.
Le Monde, which is what they read across the Channel, has it as "Trump slams 'rigged' Brazil election after ally loses", and says he had clearly been hoping for a victory for Flavio. At home the Washington Examiner has Lula clinching "victory out of thin air", with the United States declining to comment.
Pick the rigging up by both ends and look underneath: it is the same evidence being offered for the midterms at home, the midterms being the election we hold halfway through a president's term, for the Congress and not for him. You will be looking for the observers who settle such a thing. They are not going to Brazil. On 7 October the NAACP sued over the plan to send "a historic number" of election monitors to polling stations at home, saying it "stands to jeopardize" the elections.
Serves Brazil, which keeps its count and, by France 24's account, an uphill battle to govern. The bill goes to voters at home, where the monitors are being sent next month and the suit over them is still in court.
Rob Monitors. We had a monitor put on the meter and all it did was watch this house get colder, so I would not count on being watched.
“They shut the consular services, pushed money toward a campaign against Brazil's supreme court, let the algorithm do the warm-up — and still lost by four million votes. Now the men who leaned on the scale say the scale is rigged, which is the exact thing they're saying about our own count, and the Justice Department wants a historic number of monitors standing in our polling places next month. That's not a warning about the future, that's a dress rehearsal we already paid to watch.”
“Look, the United States declined to comment on the result. That's restraint. Did I say rigged? I didn't say rigged — likely rigged is a question, and asking questions is literally what observers do. And the monitors are there to protect voters, which is why we want a historic number of them, protecting you. Why is that strange? You think that's strange?”
Earlier in this story
- U.S. shut its Brazil consulates, Instagram boosted Bolsonaro, Lula won by four million: markets call it unexpected By The Lodgers · the morning edition, 26 October 2026
The receipts
Bolsonaro is claiming that the election was stolen!
The US president spoke out on Monday after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defeated Flavio Bolsonaro in Sunday's runoff. An ally of the Bolsonaro family, Trump had clearly been hoping for a victory for Flavio, who had pledged to join a wave of conservative Latin American leaders cozying up to Washington.
· Brazil attorney general says meddling ‘cannot be tolerated’ after Trump funding plans revealed from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Trump administration sued over plans to send election monitors to voting sites from the morgue, 7 Oct 2026
· Alarm Grows Over 'Clearly Illegal' Trump-Rubio Election Meddling in Brazil from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.