Bolsonaro is shunned by famous supporters in the US – 01/26/2023 – Politics

Staying in the United States for almost a month, former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) has isolated himself and is avoided by famous supporters or supporters of expression.

Bolsonaro traveled to the US on December 30, 2022, the day before leaving the Presidency, and, breaking a democratic tradition, he did not pass the presidential sash to his successor, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

He took a presidential plane and headed to Kissimmee, a city in the Orlando area a few minutes from the Disney parks, where he took his family to a vacation home that belongs to former MMA fighter José Aldo, in a gated community.

In the eight-bedroom property, he has been experiencing a contradictory situation. The place has become a pilgrimage point for voters, who travel from different parts of the country to take a photo with the former president. At the same time, however, the former president has not been meeting with supporters or celebrities who supported his election.

When the former president traveled to the United States, there was the expectation that he would meet with the former American representative Donald Trump, who also raised suspicions without evidence against the result of the elections and traveled to Florida to avoid participating in the inauguration of his successor, the Democrat Joe Biden.

Bolsonaro was even expected to go to the traditional end-of-year party at the republican’s resort, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, less than a three-hour drive from where the Brazilian is located.

But so far, neither Bolsonaro nor his children have met with Trump or his team, according to a close ally of the Republican who has contact with the Bolsonaros. Another Trump adviser said he did not know that Bolsonaro was invited to New Year’s Eve in Mar-a-Lago – at the time, Bolsonaro told allies that he withdrew from participating because his wife, Michelle, was tired of the trip.

The two former presidents had a good relationship during the period they lived in government (2019 and 2020), and Trump recorded videos asking Bolsonaro for votes in last year’s elections.

Two of the most prolific supporters of the former president in the Chamber, deputies Bia Kicis and Carla Zambelli, traveled to Miami last week and also did not meet with Bolsonaro, according to what they told Sheet.

“I was only in Miami for three days, more meeting friends,” said Kicis, adding that he traveled to the United States to participate in an anti-abortion march in Washington.

Zambelli, who made the same route between Miami and Washington, told the report that he did not look for the former president during the period he was in Florida. With strained relations with Bolsonaro since the election, she said she didn’t go to Orlando because she was in the country on vacation, with her husband and children.

Another supporter spent the entire month of January in a house in the same condominium as the former president without finding him. The SBT presenter Ratinho has a property less than a ten-minute walk from the house where Bolsonaro is staying.

Ratinho campaigned for Bolsonaro in 2022, but told Sheet who neither visited nor had any interest in visiting the former president.

“I passed by his house several times, and every time I passed there it was either on my way out or on my way in. And it coincided with that time more or less when he goes out into the street. And then there are a lot of people, I didn’t arrive never once near him,” he said.

“I think he’s here resting, I think he came to get away from people, why would I bother there? [muita gente lá na porta], but it is the fanatics, those who have no opportunity to speak with him. I have the opportunity to talk to him whenever I want.”

Orlando is a sure destination for celebrities in the Brazilian summer, who go to the city mainly to visit the Disney parks. This week, for example, artists such as Juliana Paes and Claudia Leitte and Father Fábio de Melo were in town.

A Brazilian who lives with these celebrities in the city told the Sheet that even artists sympathetic to the former president have fled to meet him since he lost the election, but especially after the attacks in Brasília on January 8th.

The assessment is that his figure has now been considered “toxic” and that it is not a positive moment to have a photo next to Bolsonaro.

Other government officials have also been to Florida recently. Former vice president and current senator Hamilton Mourão (PRTB-SP) went to Miami, but, having broken with Bolsonaro since he recorded a speech to the nation on December 31, he did not look for the former president, according to allies.

Senator and former Minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira, was also in Miami – he did not respond to the report if he met Bolsonaro, but there is no public record of the two together. Former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres was arrested after returning from Orlando. He told the court that he did not meet with Bolsonaro in the city.

Also in Orlando is the Igreja da Lagoinha, an evangelical temple whose leader, Pastor André Valadão, was one of the strongest campaigners in the Bolsonaro campaign.

Valadao did not respond to Sheet if he even met with Bolsonaro, but, according to a member of the church, neither the former president nor his family members went to the temple in the city. With a strong presence on social networks, the profiles of the church and its pastors did not publish any records of the Bolsonaro family on the site.

Another strong supporter of the former president, commentator Paulo Figueiredo, who also lives in Florida, said on a social network last week that he had not yet met Bolsonaro since he left for the country. He didn’t want to talk to the reporter.

So far, the former president’s public appearances have been restricted to trips to supermarkets and fast-food restaurants in Orlando, in addition to going out a few times a day at the gate of the house where he is staying to take pictures and sign autographs for voters.

THE Sheet was at the door of the president’s house for three days this week, but Bolsonaro did not want to answer the questions in the report.