BRASILIA.- He Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro I affirm that Donald Trump He narrowly escaped death on Saturday and compared the assassination attempt on US presidential candidate with the stab wound he himself suffered during his campaign in 2018.
The Brazilian far-right politician, a fervent admirer of the Republican who came to be called “Trump of the tropics”, was stabbed in the abdomen by a man who burst into the crowd during a rally in Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil.
“Doctors said it was a miracle that I survived in 2018, considering the severity of my injuries, and he (Trump) was saved by just a few centimetres,” Bolsonaro told reporters in Sao Paulo.
“That, in my opinion, is something that comes from above,” Bolsonaro added, looking to the sky, in a video posted on the social network X.
The United States is investigating the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. The 78-year-old Republican was wounded in the ear and the shooter, a 20-year-old man, was shot dead. One rally-goer was killed and two other people were seriously injured.
The attack shocked the country and opens a dark chapter in the polarized race for the November elections in the United States.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the attack “must be firmly condemned by all defenders of democracy.”
On Saturday, Bolsonaro (2019-2022) defined Trump as “the greatest world leader of the moment” and wished him a “speedy recovery.” “See you at the inauguration,” the Brazilian said on his social networks.
Bolsonaro’s son also drew parallels between the attacks.
“They tried to kill Trump, they tried to kill Bolsonaro, but it is the (far) right that is accused of being violent,” wrote Senator Flávio Bolsonaro on X, alongside a montage of two photos showing the moment of each attack.
For his part, the Argentine president, Javier Mileyblamed the “international left” for the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
“It is not surprising that the international left is in desperation as it sees its nefarious ideology expire today, and is willing to destabilize democracies and promote violence to hold on to power. Panicked of losing at the polls, it resorts to terrorism to impose its retrograde and authoritarian agenda,” Milei posted on her X account.
The attack, in which Trump was slightly injured in his right ear after the bullet grazed it, left one supporter dead and two others injured, who have been hospitalized. The attacker, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot dead seconds later by a Secret Service sniper on the roof from which he fired the shots.
Source: With information from AFP / Europa Press