PALM BEACH: President Donald Trump said on Saturday evening that defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro can stay in the United States indefinitely.
The comments, made to reporters during a Halloween party at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, suggest that relations between the Western Hemisphere's two largest democracies may remain strained for some time, even as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Brazil's top diplomat earlier in the day.
"He can stay here as long as he wants," Trump said of Bolsonaro, who left Brazil after losing the election to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, despite leading in most opinion polls.
The Brazilian embassy in Washington did not immediately return a request for comment.
