President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) committed a slip on Friday night (10) and confused US President Joe Biden with his predecessor and ally, Donald Trump.
“Yesterday we had [reunião] bilateral with President Trump… [risos] Sorry for the mistake. Joe Biden treating.. Ah, it’s going to be a scandal in the press there, right,” Bolsonaro said in his weekly broadcast on social media.
“With President Joe Biden [estivemos] in [reunião] bilateral meeting dealing with various issues. And, in a reserved area, which obviously lasted 30 minutes, we stayed there a meter away, without a mask, and dealing with a matter of interest to our countries and that interests the whole world”, he corrected then.
The meeting between Biden and Bolsonaro in Los Angeles was the first since the American was elected last year. “It was much better than I expected,” said the Brazilian, upon returning to the hotel where he is staying. “I can say that I am in awe of him.”
The president is in California for the Summit of the Americas. The 9th edition of the event, organized by the USA, was conceived as a way to symbolize the return of leadership in Latin American affairs under the command of the Democrat.
During Trump’s presidency, the region took a back seat, and the then president even missed the event in 2018, becoming the first American leader to neglect the meeting.
A declared admirer of the republican, Bolsonaro openly supported his re-election. He has already said, on more than one occasion, that there were indications of fraud in the US elections, reverberating the Trumpist discourse, without evidence.
Members of the delegation in Los Angeles consider that the visit put an end to the crisis between the representatives, who did not speak for a year and a half.
After the meeting, the White House released a statement in which it called the US-Brazil partnership “vital to international efforts to address the climate crisis and ensure peace.” The US government also reaffirmed its support for Brazil’s entry into the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), the club of rich countries.
Bolsonaro, meanwhile, told reporters in Los Angeles that the conversation was “quite frank” and that they addressed “many strategic technical things”.
