Trump calls Brazil India in post attacking US election system

US President Donald Trump referred to Brazil as India in a social media post on Sunday as he criticised the American election system, making a factual error about both geography and the electoral process.

In the post on Truth Social, Trump said “125 Million People voted today in the first round of India’s Presidential Election. The results came out shortly after the vote closed, on the SAME DAY,” before adding: “Voting in America is CORRUPT.”

The figures and the timeline in Trump’s post matched Sunday’s presidential election in Brazil, not India. Brazil went to the polls for the first round of its presidential election and recorded 125.27 million valid votes, according to its electoral authority. Results began coming in from 5 pm, when voting closed, and were updated as ballots were counted.

India does not hold a direct popular vote for the President. The country’s President is elected by an electoral college made up of members of Parliament and state assemblies. Droupadi Murmu took office in 2022.

Continuing his attack on the US system, Trump wrote: “In Detroit, Philadelphia, California, and numerous other US Cities and States, the results, with much smaller numbers, will often take weeks to Rig, I mean, calculate.”

Brazil’s election on Sunday featured incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. As neither secured a majority, the two will face each other in a run-off on October 25.

India had nearly 980 million registered electors in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and so the numbers cited by Trump did not match any Indian election. Even so, India’s voting system has featured prominently in Trump’s recent arguments on how elections should be held in the United States.

In August, Trump cited India’s voter identification system while pushing for electoral reforms in the US. On August 17, he said India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had spoken with officials from his administration and asked how US elections could be held without a valid photo identification card.

Trump made those remarks while seeking support for the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, impose a nationwide voter identification requirement and sharply restrict voting by mail. In another social media post, he had said: “India’s last Election had 646,000,000 Voters! Less than one per cent voted by mail, and every single Voter had to have a VALID Photo Identity Document... We need to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, now.”

Trump’s latest post, however, mixed up Brazil with India while using voting figures from Brazil’s presidential election to argue for changes to the US electoral system.