Jair Bolsonaro
Jair BolsonaroReuters

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro asked on Thursday whether the vote in the US was really over, Reuters reported.

Talking to supporters outside his official residence, Bolsonaro was asked what he thought of the American election result.

“But has it finished, have the elections already finished?” he asked the supporter before breaking into a smile.

Bolsonaro, who has been dubbed the “Trump of Brazil”, is a close ally of US President Donald Trump and one of the few prominent world leaders still not to have congratulated Joe Biden on his election win.

Bolsonaro endorsed Trump for re-election in late October, saying, “God willing I will be able to attend” Trump’s second inauguration.

On Tuesday, according to Reuters, he took a swipe at Biden referring to him as a “candidate” and taking issue with a comment Biden said during a US presidential debate that Brazil should fight deforestation with foreign help or face unspecified “economic consequences.”

“We saw recently there a great candidate for head of state say that if I don’t put out the fire in the Amazon, he will put up commercial barriers against Brazil,” Bolsonaro said.

“And how can we deal with all that? Just diplomacy is not enough … When saliva runs out, one has to have gunpowder, otherwise it doesn’t work,” he added.