Eduardo Bolsonaro, a member of Brazil’s congress and one of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s three sons, made an appearance at CPAC on Thursday, where he warned that “freedom itself” could become a “distant memory” if Americans failed to observe the development of anti-democratic tendencies in Brazil.
You can watch the full video of his speech above, and read a full transcript below.
Up afternoon! Hi there! Thank you, thank you, thank you! [Applause] Thank you, I think you have some Bolsonaro supporters here, the great Brazilian community. Uh, this is a little bit weird, I’m not use it with talking with the teleprompter, but I’m very happy to be here. Good afternoon, seek, how you are doing? It’s great to be here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I know many of you are well aware of the risks exposed by an elected judges interfering with the policies of a duly elected president. Even we have all heard Elon Musk call it out, we all heard Vice President J.D. Vance sound the alarm, and of course we all heard President Trump repeatedly warned that judicial overreach threatens not just his presidency but the very foundation of the American democracy.
Well, I come from the future, and I know exactly how this story can end. Okay, maybe not the future, but I come from Brazil, which is not that different. As my country has become a laboratory for censorship and judicial authoritarianism. Since 2019, it’s been used as a testing ground for the judicial weaponization against conservative, libertarians, and Christians — always under the noble pretense of protecting democracy, fighting misinformation, and stopping extremism. While in reality silencing dissidents, controlling narratives, and criminalizing opposition. We continue to face the direct consequences of this experiment every day.
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Just three days ago, my father, former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, was formally charged by the attorney general of the current socialist government with allegedly orchestrating a coup — a Disneyland coup, as some might call it. Without weapons, without a plan, and while he wasn’t even in Brazilian territory, but in Orlando — probably debated strategy with he Goofy and taking national security advises from Mickey Mouse! [Laughter] Maybe it’s really the Disneyland coup that there is no other word to talk about it. This baseless accusation, entirely devoid of evidence, is nothing more than a tool to neutralize political opposition. It mirrors the same tactics used against the opposition in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
Yet in Brazil, Brazil is preserving differently on the global stage. Because while its situation is in some ways even worse, the persecution is not spearheaded by the executive branch but by the judiciary — and that makes it all the more dangerous. We are not talking about the dictatorship in the traditional sense, we are talking about a place where tyrant issues decrees and suppress opposition openly. No, in Brazil the judicial system has been weaponized, creating an illusion of legality while systematically dismantling democracy from within.
And guess who helped found this experiment? Right — agencies like USAID and NED, institutions supposedly dedicated [to] promoting democracy, but in reality channeling resources into censorship, judicial overreach, and political persecution in my country. Let me introduce to you a man named Alexandre de Moraes. He’s not an elected official, he’s a Supreme Court justice who has given himself and unchecked power to decide who can speak, who can run for office, and even who can go to the prison.
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Under his watch, Brazil has become a country where social media platforms are forced to silence opposition voices or face billions in fines. Judges and bureaucrats — not the people — decide who is fit to run for office. Congressmen like Daniel Silveira are throw into jail for so-called opinion crimes, receiving an outrageous sentence of eight years and nine months behind bars simply for exposing his views in a video — a punishment more feeding of a totalitarian regime than a democracy. And as I said, even the former president Jair Bolsonaro is at risk of being arrested on the same kind of bogus charges used against opposition leaders in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
But it doesn’t stop there. The judicial system has become an instrument for persecution at every level. Political parties that challenge the status quo are harassed and investigated, and some of their candidates are banned from competing fairly in elections. Independent journalists face exile or worse — imprisonment — for exposing government corruption or criticizing the judiciary. Ordinary citizens who dare to express this dissenting opinions on social media find themselves banned, fined, or even arrests. This is not democracy, this is a judicial overreach. This is lawfare, and this is what happens when courts are turned into political weapons against the will of the people.
Why is it happening? Because Jair Bolsonaro current leads all major polls outside the margin of error and is the only candidate capable of defeating the left in the 2026 election. If he’s kept out of the race, Brazil will fall completely under China’s influence — there is no doubt about that. And Brazil cannot be overlooked. With over 200 million people, the largest economy in Latin America, and the land mass nearly the size of the United States, its geopolitical and economic importance is undeniable. China recognized this and is actively working to pull Brazil deeper into its sphere of influence.
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And while you might think this is just a Brazilian problem, it’s not. This has many ramifications and has already spilled over into the United States. Here are three examples that should concern every American citizen.
Number one, Jason Miller’s detention in 2021. An American citizen and advisor to President Trump, was detained in Brazil under a politically motivated order. His crime? Attending CPAC Brazil and supporting free speech.
Number two, Elon Musk’s persecution. He was added to an illegal fake news investigation. That’s right, Elon Musk is under investigation in Brazil. You should be, I don’t know, maybe scared with a hand if he go around here, if come around here. Fined with billion-dollar fines and saw his company X banned in Brazil, all because he refused to comply with government censorship demands.
The Deep State scan at CBP involving a Brazilian national — number three. Brazilian authorities in collusion with American bureaucrats manipulated U.S. immigration records to fabricate justification for the unlawful imprisonment of Filipe Martins, a former national security advisor to my father. He was subject to solitary confinement, psychological coercion, and inhuman treatment in an attempt to extract a statement that could be used to incriminate Jair Bolsonaro.
So think about it. If they can detain and silence American citizens, if they can control a country as large as Brazil, if they can manipulate official U.S. government records to imprison a political opponent abroad, what else they can do? What stops them from doing the same to help terrorists, drug cartels, or transnational criminals? And more importantly, if they could do all of this outside of the United States, what makes you think they wouldn’t try to replicate it with him?
This has gone too far, and you the American people must pay attention, because what happened in Brazil is being used as a blueprint for judicial tyranny elsewhere, including right here in the United States. Ironically, as I said before, this experiment was partially funded by your taxpayer dollars, which means they will soon come back. They will come to recover that investment.
But instead of teaching leftist judges how to destroy Trump, let it serve as a warning for the American people. Freedom is fragile, and don’t you let an elected judges dictate your democracy. It’s only a matter of time before we wake up in a country where free speech, free elections, and even freedom itself are just distant memories. Brazil was a test.
[Applause]
Now, thank you. I told you that you have Bolsonaro supporters here. Now they are applying the same formula elsewhere, including here in the United States, and we need to fight back — just as President Trump is doing through his legal team and in partnership with Rumble by filling a lawsuit against Alexandre de Moraes for censoring and sanctioning American businesses and citizens.
This legal battle will set a crucial precedent, not just for Brazil, but for the future of the free speech and democracy in United States as well. The globalist playbook is in full effect. If you don’t fight back now, you will be the next. Learn from Brazil before it’s too late.
Thank you all my friends, this is my message. Pray for my father, pray for the Brazilian that are in prison now, our January 8th guys. We are asking for honesty in the Congress, and we hope receive a lot of support from you outside of Brazil, because you know how it means. God bless America, God bless Brazil. Thank you very much!