Senator Bernie Sanders and 30 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio accusing the Donald Trump administration of waging a pressure campaign against Brazil ahead of the first round of vote on October 4.
The Stars and Stripes hang alongside Brazilian flags in a pro-Bolsonaro rally in Florianopolis, Brazil on September 7, 2026 (Michael Fox / Panamerican Dispatch)
The letter was sent Thursday, September 24. Illinois Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez led the congressional effort. In it, the lawmakers say that recent actions from the White House “point toward an apparent effort to interfere with, and potentially undermine, Brazil’s general election in October.”
They demand that Washington commit to recognizing the certified election results.
In particular, the letter cited the Oval Office meeting between Trump and Senator and presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro in May. According to the letter, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro used the occasion to ask the United States to designate the Brazilian drug gangs, Primeiro Comando da Capital and the Comando Vermelho, as foreign terrorist organizations. The White House followed through with the request shortly thereafter.
The lawmakers said that Brazilian authorities fear this measure could be used to justify sanctions and other extraterritorial actions. The group also noted that Trump’s military strikes in Latin America were justified, in particular, by alleged threats from such organizations.
“We are writing to express our grave concern regarding the Administration’s coordinated effort to threaten our strategic alliance with Brazil and undermine the Western Hemisphere’s second-largest democracy ahead of its upcoming presidential election in October 2026,” reads an excerpt from the document.
The letter also points out that, “Rather than helping defend Brazilian democracy, the United States is acting as an agent of interference and destabilization—using diplomatic, economic, and political pressure in ways that risk weakening the country’s democratic institutions, undermining confidence in Brazil’s electoral process, and inflicting further damage on our relationship with a strategic U.S. ally and trading partner.”
According to the document, this pattern of conduct not only risks the integrity of electoral processes in individual countries, “but also progressively eroding electorates’ confidence in democratic processes and institutions across the region.”
The lawmakers also note that the “sustained, multifaceted campaign of interference and destabilization in Brazil” is driven by the steep tariff hikes promoted by Trump and by U.S. sanctions against Supreme Federal Court justices. The White House’s actions are characterized as an “extraordinary infringement” of Brazilian sovereignty.
Interference by the Trump administration in the Brazilian election has been speculated about for months. It has now intensified to the point where the Brazilian Intelligence Agency had to produce a confidential report, disclosed by the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, raising the possibility of foreign influence in the electoral process to a “critical level.”
The reelection campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has petitioned the Brazilian Supreme Court and the Supreme Electoral Court over the matter.
Edited by Gia Matheus Almeida. This article was originally published by Brasil de Fato. It can be read in its original form, in Portuguese, here. You can read the complete letter here.