Donald Trump Mixes Up India With Brazil While Attacking US Election Process

US President Donald Trump appeared to confuse India with Brazil while criticising the American electoral process, incorrectly describing Brazil’s presidential election as India’s in a social media post on Sunday.

The mix-up came as Trump sought to contrast the speed of election results elsewhere with the time taken to count votes in parts of the US.

“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,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, before returning to his criticism of the US election system.

“Voting in America is CORRUPT,” Trump said, referring to the weeks sometimes taken to count votes in US cities and states.

Brazil Vote Mistaken For India’s

The details cited by Trump closely matched Sunday’s presidential election in Brazil, not India.

Brazil went to the polls for the first round of its presidential election, recording 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.

“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," Trump said.

The election featured incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. As neither candidate secured a majority, they will face each other in a run-off on October 25.

India Does Not Directly Elect President

Unlike Brazil, Indian citizens do not directly vote for their President. The President is elected by an electoral college comprising members of Parliament and state assemblies. President Droupadi Murmu assumed office in 2022.

India had nearly 980 million registered electors in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, meaning the figures cited by Trump did not correspond to an Indian presidential election.

The geographical mix-up also came after Brazil attended a BRICS summit in New Delhi last month. India and Brazil also played a FIFA international friendly football match in Kolkata on Saturday.

The FIFA World Cup was co-hosted by the US, where football is more commonly called soccer. Trump handed over the sport’s biggest prize in New Jersey in July, when Spain captain Rodri, whose full name is Rodrigo Hernández Cascante, lifted the trophy.

Trump had also erroneously referred to Spain as a BRICS country in January last year.

Also Watch:

Trump Has Previously Cited India’s Voting System

India’s elections have previously featured in Trump’s arguments for changes to the US voting system.

On August 17, Trump 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 the remarks while pushing for the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, introduce a nationwide voter identification requirement and severely restrict voting by mail.

“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 had said in a social media post.