Hands across the water Failed coup shows the poisonous symbiosis of Trump and Bolsonaro

In the days following the 6 January 2021 storming of the US Capitol, a Brazilian professor and expert on disinformation, David Nemer, gave an interview predicting the same thing would happen in Brazil two years later.

- Julian Borger

This month's insurrection in Brasília came just two days after the second anniversary of the Capitol attack. Nemer said his prediction was not the work of a seer, but was based on analysis of the close and growing symbiosis of the hard right in the US and Brazil - a bond that was built up around the Trump and Bolsonaro families and their entourages.

"The reason why I was saying that was because the same sort of narrative that was flowing around social media in the US, it was also flowing in WhatsApp and Telegram groups that I'd monitor and that I researched [in Brazil]," said Nemer, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia.

The bonds have been maintained by family members. Even before leaving office, Bolsonaro decamped to Florida and is now in Kissimmee, Orlando, close to Trump's bastion at Mar-a-Lago. The former Brazilian president makes frequent appearances outside his temporary base, the holiday home of a retired Brazilian martial arts fighter, to greet adoring supporters.