Flávio Bolsonaro resurfaces at Mar-a-Lago, promises 'great things to come'

Flávio Bolsonaro hasn't vanished — he's just relocated. The 45-year-old made his first major public appearance since fleeing Brazil on Thursday night, taking the stage at a rightwing gala dinner at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club. According to the Guardian, he told the crowd: “I know this wasn't the end for Brazil and I know it wasn't the end for America.” The four-day Conservative Political Action Conference bash, billed as a “gathering of visionaries,” also has Liz Truss on the bill.

He leaned hard on faith and defiance. “Even when what seems like the end isn't what we'd hoped for, we must thank God and have even more faith that this isn't yet the end,” he told the dinner. Then came the line he clearly wants people to remember: “No one shuts the door that he opens – and the door he shuts, no one opens.” The message was simple — don't write me off.

Earlier, in his first post-election interview, Bolsonaro told the New York Times he had “help from absolutely no one” to leave Brazil, insisting “it was all me.” That contradicts reports he got a hand from Trump adviser Jason Miller and Santiago Caputo, a close aide to Argentina's rightwing president Javier Milei. He also made a series of unsubstantiated election fraud claims, and said he would “take to the grave” the full story of how he got out.

The timing is brutal. The Guardian reports he absconded early last week after losing the 25 October presidential vote to the leftwing incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by more than 4m votes, even though he pulled 59m ballots. Waiting back home: federal police investigations into money laundering and corruption. He has held elected office for more than 20 years, but his parliamentary immunity lapses early next year when his term ends — and prosecution becomes possible.

Analysts say the flight cost him far more than a seat on a plane. Thomas Traumann, author and GloboNews pundit, said Flávio “was foolish enough to throw away the leadership of the opposition that he could have exercised had he stayed in Brazil,” while noting “the family is still a player.” Brother Eduardo lives in self-imposed exile in the US too, and faces a four-year sentence for coercion if he comes back. Four other Bolsonaros won congressional seats last month, including brothers Carlos and Jair Renan and stepmother Michelle.

The dynasty's grip, though, is slipping. Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup, barred from office until 2060 and under house arrest at 71. Political scientist Sérgio Abranches told O Globo the movement is “mortally wounded because of its mistakes and its crimes,” and said democratic rightwingers now have room to break away before the 2030 election. Flávio, who was granted a visa by Trump, says he'll “obviously” run again but that his future lies in the US “at least for now” — with Eduardo insisting on video that the pair are “100% legal.”