Trump Offers $1 Million For Voter Fraud Reports, Claims Brazil Election Looked Rigged

US President Donald Trump questioned Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s election victory on Monday, claiming it “looked like another rigged election” without providing evidence. Separately, Trump announced a $1 million reward for information about alleged voter fraud in past elections or the upcoming 2026 US midterm elections.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said the reward would be paid following the arrest and conviction of those responsible for electoral fraud. “Anybody reporting Voter Fraud in the past Elections, or the upcoming 2026 Midterm Election, will be paid $1,000,000 upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the Fraud,” he wrote.

Trump made the remarks after Lula defeated right-wing challenger Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, by more than four million votes. Flavio refused to concede defeat and said he would seek the annulment of Sunday’s result, questioning the Supreme Court’s decision to extend voting by two hours.

“I didn’t take sides, but it looked like another rigged election,” Trump told reporters, describing the way votes were tabulated as “very strange”. An analysis of electoral records by Insper professor Pedro Burgos found that fewer than 35,000 votes, approximately 0.03% of the total, were cast during the additional voting hours.

Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin rejected Trump’s remarks as “totally wrong” and “unfounded” in a television interview. Trump had not publicly endorsed Flavio before the election, although Reuters previously reported that US State Department officials had led a campaign to bring the Bolsonaro family back to power.

Neither Trump nor Jair Bolsonaro accepted their respective election defeats in 2020 and 2022. Brazil’s former president was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after losing to Lula. Flavio also agreed to comply with a federal police order to surrender his passports after visiting his father, who is under house arrest. He denied planning to flee Brazil.

Lula’s victory drew congratulations from world leaders but unsettled investors who had anticipated a Bolsonaro win. Brazil’s real fell 8.1% against the US dollar, its biggest single-day decline since 2002, while the stock exchange recorded its steepest one-day fall since 2020.

Andres Abadia, chief Latin America economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the initial sell-off could moderate as election-related positions were unwound, but investors would demand convincing fiscal commitments before increasing their exposure.

Lula’s victory defied opinion polls and a broader anti-incumbent trend, interrupting a series of right-wing electoral gains across Latin America. Despite trailing Bolsonaro in the first round, Lula secured enough support in the runoff. Pollsters attributed his victory partly to higher-than-expected turnout and an improved social media campaign.