Financial Times Likens Brazil’s Bolsonaros to the Trumps as the Vote Nears
BRAZIL · ELECTION 2026
Key Facts
- —The country Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, holds the first round of its presidential election on Sunday 4 October.
- —Why it matters The Bolsonaro family leads Brazil’s radical right. Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, is the main challenger to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
- —What happened On Saturday 26 September the Financial Times weekend magazine ran a cover story calling the family a clan as radical as it is dysfunctional, Portuguese-language reports said, and likening it to the Trump family.
- —Who is involved Jair, serving a coup-plot sentence under house arrest; his sons Flávio, Carlos and Eduardo; his wife Michelle, running for the Senate. The author is the paper’s Brazil bureau chief, Michael Pooler.
- —What it means for you An influential foreign paper frames the vote as a test of whether the Bolsonaros become a lasting dynasty. It is analysis, not new evidence.
- —Still open Whether the family or the campaign will answer the article, and whether it has any effect with a week of campaigning left.
A week before Brazil votes, a Financial Times Bolsonaro cover story has compared the country’s best-known political family to the Trumps. The British paper’s weekend magazine published it on Saturday 26 September.
Estadão reported that the piece, titled “Scandal and succession in the House of Bolsonaro”, also led the FT website that day. BBC News Brasil said it was written by the paper’s Brazil bureau chief, Michael Pooler.
What the FT wrote
Estadão and Gazeta do Povo quoted the same opening passage in Portuguese. Translated back into English, it begins: “Meet the Bolsonaros: a clan as radical as it is dysfunctional.”
The FT original is paywalled. Quotes here are retranslated from Portuguese reports, so the exact English wording may differ.
The magazine says the family swings between conservatism and chaos and practises a “paranoid style” of politics. Like the Trumps, it argues, they embody the fusion of celebrity, social media and the pursuit of power.
Gazeta do Povo noted that the cover illustration echoes the HBO drama “Succession”. It called the tone of the piece critical of the former president and his relatives.
A family feud and a convicted patriarch
The story opens with a June video, BBC News Brasil reported. In it Michelle Bolsonaro accused her stepson Flávio of humiliating her in a party dispute.
The FT describes Jair Bolsonaro as a fading “sun king”. He is serving a 27-year sentence from the Supreme Federal Court, Brazil’s top court, for plotting to stay in power illegally. BBC News Brasil said he is held under house arrest in Brasília.
It also revisits leaked audio of Flávio asking the jailed banker Daniel Vorcaro to fund a film about his father, BBC News Brasil reported. Flávio denies wrongdoing.
Three possible outcomes
Estadão quoted the FT’s view that a Flávio win would make the family “a political dynasty” rather than a one-off. He would then press Congress for a broad amnesty for the coup plotters, the paper wrote.
A defeat, the FT argues, could end “the Bolsonaro era” and open space for a more moderate right, such as São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas. Recent polls show the runoff close, as in Quaest Poll Shows Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro Tied at 41 in the Runoff a Week Before Brazil Votes.
What Is Not Yet Known
No public reply from the Bolsonaro family or Flávio’s campaign to the Financial Times Bolsonaro story had been reported by Monday afternoon.
The Vorcaro case also remains open. It has already shaped the race, as in Brazil’s Election Court Pulls a Lula Ad Tying His Rival to a Jailed Banker.
Whether a foreign magazine profile moves any votes before 4 October is impossible to measure.
Sources: Financial Times, “Scandal and succession in the House of Bolsonaro”, 26 September 2026; BBC News Brasil; Estadão; Gazeta do Povo.
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