THE GUY WHO PROMISED HE WASN'T FLEEING BRAZIL IS NOW IN MIAMI

Flávio Bolsonaro lost Sunday's runoff to Lula, and by Monday Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had given him 24 hours to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports in a money laundering investigation. Flávio filmed a video saying he would comply and had no plans to leave the country. Tuesday's deadline came and went with no passports. Brazil canceled them. At 10:50 that night he was crossing a border bridge into Argentina with his wife and two daughters, reportedly on an Italian passport. Within the hour they were on a charter jet. It stopped in Guayaquil around 4 a.m. and touched down at Opa-Locka Executive Airport outside Miami at 9:30 Wednesday morning. He then put out a letter calling himself "the true leader of Brazil" and thanking Milei, Trump and the American people for taking him in. Milei's government says it had nothing to do with any of it. Whether this is a fugitive or a refugee depends on who you ask. Investigators tie him to a lawyer accused of laundering more than $1 billion through a pension fraud scheme. He denies everything, calls it persecution, and his allies note that no charge against him has been made public. Both of those are true at once. The State Department is issuing the family visas, and Trump said he'd approve, called them fine people, and said Brazil's election had gotten bad reviews. His father ran this same play to Florida after losing to Lula in 2022, then came home three months later.

Why you should give a shit: His Senate immunity expires January 31, so Miami isn't a vacation, it's a venue change, and Brazil just learned that canceling one passport means nothing to a man with a spare and a jet.