US President Donald Trump on Monday questioned the fairness of Brazil's recent two-round presidential election, describing the vote as appearing "rigged" and "corrupt" without providing evidence to support his claims.
Speaking to reporters while heading for a midterm rally in Corinth, Mississippi, Trump was asked whether he believed the Brazilian election, which concluded in a runoff on Sunday, had been "fair."
"Well, it looked terrible to me. I thought it was a terrible looking," Trump said, adding that he had not taken sides in the contest.
"It looked like another rigged election, frankly," he said.
His remarks came after Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva secured a fourth nonconsecutive term as Brazil's president, defeating Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro in Sunday's presidential runoff with 51.79% of valid votes, or more than 64 million ballots, compared with Bolsonaro's 48.21%.
Trump argued that elections should be beyond dispute and said the Brazilian vote presented a negative image to the international community.
"Elections have to be indisputable, and it looked very bad to me," he told reporters.
The president repeated that he had neither endorsed a candidate nor taken a position in the election, while continuing to criticize the conduct of the vote.
"I watched the election. It looked so, so corrupt, so terrible," Trump said.
