Trump confuses Brazil with India in criticism of the US electoral system

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, left Brazil for India in a post on social media, on Sunday night (4) when commenting on the speed of counting the votes. He did not mention any candidates.

"125 million people voted today in the first round of India's presidential election. The results came out shortly after voting closed, ON THE SAME DAY," wrote the Republican, without mentioning any of the candidates.

India, however, did not hold elections this Sunday. The vote took place in Brazil. The number cited by Trump also does not correspond to the Indian electoral reality: in the 2024 general elections, more than 600 million people voted in the Asian country. Furthermore, India does not have direct elections for the president, who is the head of state but not the head of government.

Trump used the comparison to once again criticize the United States electoral system, where the count can last for days in some states.

"In Detroit, Philadelphia, California and several other US cities and states, the results, with much smaller numbers, often take weeks to be rigged — I mean calculated. Voting in the United States is CORRUPT!!!" he wrote.

The American president often raises, without presenting evidence, suspicions of fraud in the US elections, and the agenda is once again the focus of his demonstrations on the subject due to the proximity of the mid-term legislative elections, the so-called "midterms", in which the Republican Party could lose its majority in Congress.

The Trump administration has sought to apply voting restrictions to reduce Democratic chances and pressured allied states to redraw voting districts to boost Republican projections.

Trump said twice recently that he was watching the Brazilian election "very closely", but did not name any of the candidates or express support.

The vote takes place at a time of weakened bilateral relations between the US and Brazil, in the wake of actions by the Donald Trump government seen by the Lula government as attempts to interfere in the Brazilian electoral process.

Members of Trump's cabinet, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, did not comment on the Brazilian elections. The report asked the White House whether there would be a comment on the Brazilian elections — until the publication of this report, there was no response. The lack of an immediate reaction contrasts with the stance adopted by Washington in the 2022 Brazilian presidential election.

On the night of the first round that year, then Secretary of State Antony Blinken congratulated Brazilians and the country's institutions for a vote that he classified as "successful". The following day, the White House stated that the vote had taken place in a "free, fair, transparent and credible" manner.