President of Argentina Javier Milei over the weekend condemned Brazil’s radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for being a “thief,” “convict,” and “socialist trash” during a speech endorsing Flávio Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign in the country.
Milei also accused Lula of allegedly financing an “anti-Argentina” campaign during Argentina’s 2023 presidential election seeking to prevent electoral victory. Several Brazilian government officials condemned Milei’s remarks and the Foreign Ministry recalled Brazil’s ambassador to Buenos Aires in protest.
President Milei travelled to São Paulo this weekend to participate in the Liberal Party (PL) National Convention. Flávio Bolsonaro, the oldest son of conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro, was officially proclaimed as PL’s presidential candidate in Brazil’s October presidential election. The younger Bolsonaro will run against Lula, who is seeking to be reelected for a fourth presidential term. President Milei gave his full endorsement to Flávio Bolsonaro and said that Bolsonaro is the only one who can stop Lula’s socialist policies in the upcoming elections.
Milei also intended to travel to Brasília to visit his friend, Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence under house arrest. However, Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes blocked the visit from happening.
During his speech at the PL National Convention, the Argentine president — a staunch anti-communist highly critical of Lula and his socialist policies — not only gave his endorsement of Flávio Bolsonaro, but delivered a scathing condemnation of socialism and the Sao Paulo Forum founded by Lula and late Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro.
Milei emphatically stated that he does not wish for other countries to suffer through the lies of socialism and its consequences after the “f*ck*ng leftists” plunged Argentina into poverty.
Throughout his speech, Milei, without directly mentioning Lula, branded him a “thief,” a “convict,” and “socialist scum,” referring to the Brazilian president’s past corruption conviction. Milei also accused the Lula government of meddling in Argentina’s 2023 elections, affirming that, while the Argentine socialists printed money to “win the election,” the country had a “neighbor who meddled in Argentine politics to try to twist history in favor of those f*ck*ng leftists.”
“I’m talking about the very same person who jails opponents simply for being opponents,” Milei said.
The Argentine Presidency published Milei’s full speech at the PL convention on its social media accounts.
The Argentine president also criticized STF Justice de Moraes and his decision to block his visit to Jair Bolsonaro, branding the judge “bald trash” who prevented him from seeing his friend. Milei affirmed that Bolsonaro is “unfairly imprisoned” and contrasted his situation to the time Lula spent imprisoned after being convicted of misappropriating government funds while president to buy a luxury beachfront property.
The Argentine president pointed out that, unlike Bolsonaro, Lula was freely able to receive visits from foreign heads of state — including his predecessor, socialist former Argentine President Alberto Fernández.
“This is nothing more than a clear demonstration of the injustice of his detention and its clearly vindictive nature,” Milei said. “Dear Jair, I send you a hug from afar. What the bureaucrats are preventing today will soon become a reality, and we will once again share a hug with our beloved Jair Bolsonaro.”
The Brazilian government and the ruling Workers’ Party (PT) condemned Milei’s remarks as “unacceptable.” The head of the STF, Justice Edson Fachin, published an official note rejecting Milei’s “disrespectful reference” to Alexandre de Moraes. Similarly, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry recalled its ambassador to Buenos Aires, Julio Bitelli, who reportedly returned to his country between Sunday night and early Monday morning.
Unnamed Argentine government sources told the newspaper La Nación that Milei has no intention of apologizing to the Brazilian government for his remarks against Lula. President Lula da Silva has not publicly commented on the situation at press time.
Milei reiterated his accusations against Lula on Sunday during an interview with Radio Mitre. The Argentine president reportedly accused Lula’s government of financing an anti-Argentine lobby seeking to tarnish his administration’s image. Milei also pointed pointed out that the Brazilian government played a “very active role” in the campaign of his 2023 presidential rival, Sergio Massa.
Referring to his blocked visit to Jair Bolsonaro, Milei pointed out that Lula was freely able to visit socialist former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner last year. Since 2025, Fernández de Kirchner has been serving a six-year prison sentence on house arrest conditions after a court found her guilty of defrauding the Argentine state of upwards of $1 billion through shady public contract deals during her presidency.
The Argentine presidency’s Rapid Response Office recounted on Sunday that Lula travelled to Buenos Aires in July 2025 — months before Argentina’s 2025 midterm parliamentary elections — and directly went to meet with Fernández de Kirchner, avoiding all contact with Milei.
At the time, the office noted, the Brazilian president issued “harmful, disparaging remarks” against Argentine institutions and its judiciary — stressing that the judiciary allowed Lula’s visit to Fernández de Kirchner, unlike Milei’s planned visit to his friend, Jair Bolsonaro.
The Office said:
Around that same time, Lula himself went so far as to say that Milei ‘spouted a lot of nonsense’ and ‘stupid things.’ Some time later, he sent the most senior member of his Cabinet, the Secretary-General of the Presidency, Guilherme Boulos, to attack Milei, viciously labeling him an ‘imbecile,’ ‘the most rejected president in Latin America,’ and ‘the face of the far right: stupidity and prejudice. Even Lula’s former spokesperson, Paulo Pimenta, went so far as to call our President a ‘criminal.’
Much like Milei during his speech, the Argentine rapid response office accused Lula of “pulling strings” to interfere in Argentina’s 2023 elections when Lula backed Milei’s electoral rival, Sergio Massa, and send a team of consultants to help him defeat Milei.
“Their strategy was clear: run a smear campaign, stoke fear, and try to halt Milei’s momentum,” the office said. “Milei himself denounced it at the time. It was an operation of foreign interference that ultimately FAILED when Argentines freely voted for Liberty Advances [Milei’s party] in the runoff election.”
The Argentine outlet Infobae also recounted on Monday that Sergio Massa travelled to Brazil in August 2023 and met with Lula, seeking help to defeat Milei after the Argentine President won that year’s primary election.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.