South America07 October, 20261 min read
Plínio Vicentin Júnior Wins 161 Votes With “Plínio Trump” Campaign In Minas Gerais
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Plínio Vicentin Júnior won 161 votes for Congress in Minas Gerais. He campaigned under the 'Plínio Trump' moniker and emulated Trump branding.
Trump look-alike vote
Plínio Vicentin Júnior campaigned for a seat in Brazil’s Congress by making like U.S. President Donald Trump, combing his hair like Trump’s and glowering like Trump’s in Minas Gerais.
Plínio Vicentin Júnior asked residents in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais to vote for a “Plínio Trump” strategy, and the campaign result reached 161 votes.
Trump wrote that “125 Million People voted today in the first round of Brazil’s Presidential Election.”
It is a single, nationally standardized system: the same machines, the same procedures and the same counting process across the whole country.
Machines, paper, and claims
Trump’s Truth Social post said results came out “on the SAME DAY!” Trump has “already falsely accused voting machines used in U.S. elections of changing votes,” while Brazil uses standalone machines and the United States uses paper-based approach.
Voting is “mandatory for citizens between ages 18 and 70,” and voting takes place in person at electronic voting machines. There’s no signatures to check, no physical paper-ballot tabulation systems, and voters do not get an individual receipt of their vote.
Brazil’s stakes and polarization
Brazil’s presidential vote is set against corruption scandals, deep political polarization, and growing voter fatigue, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro as the frontrunners. Lula, 80, is seeking a fourth and likely last term, and Lula spent 580 days in prison on corruption convictions that Brazil's Supreme Court later annulled in 2021.
“Lula, 80, is seeking a fourth and likely last term.”
Jair Bolsonaro is barred from running and is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted of attempting a coup to overturn his 2022 election loss. Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, said, “It's two competing visions of what the country should look like and what Latin America should look like,” as the election could reshape how Brazil positions itself on the global stage.