USAID Was Propping Up Leftist Candidates, Fugitive Brazilian Politician Says

• October 15, 2026

Javier Milei stands between two men in tuxedos, smiling while holding a blue folder and giving a thumbs-up.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (C) and Brazilian politician Eduardo Bolsonaro (L), brother of Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro, attend the Hispanic Heritage Gala in Washington, DC on October 14, 2026. (Alex WROBLEWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—American taxpayer dollars were being used to prop up leftist candidates in the Western Hemisphere under former President Joe Biden, a top Brazilian politician who is now seeking refuge in the United States from incarceration under his country’s socialist government, told the Daily Signal on Wednesday.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is now imprisoned, and brother of current presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, made his remarks after eight countries in the region elected conservative candidates for president since Secretary of State Marco Rubio defunded the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2025.

“Absolutely, after my dad left the presidency, there was an increase in American money via USAID, NED (The National Endowment for Democracy), and the Atlantic Council for Brazil- money that belongs to the American taxpayer. We are talking about $300 million Brazilian Reais ($60 million USD). Now we need to combat the misinformation that the money helped raise.

“For example, we know that at least $5 million USD reached Brazil in 2022 to create these agencies that combat any sort of public criticism of the socialist government, which these agencies referred to as ‘right-wing misinformation,’” Bolsonaro continued.

The agency also shelled out additional grants to support unspecified causes. For instance, in 2024 alone, under Brazil’s socialist government, USAID disbursed $22.4 million to combat Amazonian deforestation. Not only is deforestation in the Amazon rainforest at an all-time high, but only $14 million was used to fight it.

“This is foreign election interference,” Bolsonaro continued. “American taxpayer dollars were financing foreign censorship in the name of the Left, which is completely contrary to why USAID was even created in the first place. Kennedy (former President John F. Kennedy) created this agency with good intentions, but this is no longer the case.”

“Unfortunately, under the Biden government, ideological division and polarization diverted that initiative,” Bolsonaro said, citing the vision Kennedy had when creating the agency.

If Bolsonaro’s brother, Flávio, were to win Brazil’s presidential runoff election on Oct. 25, the nation could be the ninth country in the hemisphere to elect a conservative since USAID was dismantled.

Pedro Rodriguez | Journalism Fellow

Pedro Boccalato Rodriguez-Aparicio is a journalism fellow at the Daily Signal.

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