U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, met Brazil's far-right President-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, on Thursday to draw closer the two biggest economies in the Americas, whose leaders are ideologically in lockstep.
The rise of Bolsonaro, a one-time army captain who spent nearly three decades in Congress, stunned Brazil's political establishment in an echo of the upset Trump delivered by capturing the White House two years ago. Bolsonaro was easily elected last month by voters enraged over endemic political corruption and an economy still sputtering after enduring its worst recession in a century.
Bolton tweeted after the meeting that he had extended Trump's invitation for the Brazilian leader to visit the United States and that the one-hour meeting was "wide-ranging" and "very productive."