Brazil's defeated candidate Flávio Bolsonaro flies to Miami via Argentina and Ecuador after defying a passport order

Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, the defeated right-wing Brazilian presidential candidate and son of the jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, has reached Miami after crossing into Argentina overland and then travelling on through Ecuador — a clear defiance of a Brazilian Supreme Court order that required him to surrender his passports within 24 hours under a money laundering investigation he rejects. Trump told reporters he "approves" of the senator's arrival in the US, describing the family as "fine people" and calling Brazil's election "very strange." Lula, who celebrated his 81st birthday on Tuesday, called the departure "shameful."

Brazil's Supreme Court cancelled Bolsonaro's travel documents after he failed to meet the passport surrender deadline — by which point he had already entered Argentina with his wife and two daughters, crossing via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge.

Trump said he had not backed Bolsonaro before the vote but challenged the outcome, telling reporters on Wednesday: "The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible."

As recently as Monday, Bolsonaro had stated publicly that he had no intention of leaving, declaring: "I have never thought about leaving the country."