Noel King

Dustin DeSoto, Audio Max, Today's Show.

Amina El-Sadi is our editor, respectful.

David Tadishore and Patrick Boyd, engineered.

And Andrea Lopez-Crusado is our fact checker.

I'm Noelle King.

Late last year, Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a military coup to keep himself in office after he lost an election.

Bolsonaro was often called the Trump of the tropics.

He was a populist, a nationalist with anti-democratic impulses, an itchy trigger finger on Twitter, and maybe most importantly, about half his country firmly behind him.

During Bolsonaro's trial, Trump tried to downplay any comparison.

But he wasn't entirely successful.

With Bolsonaro behind bars now, people who study democracy are asking whether what happened in his country holds any lessons for these United States.

Coming up on Today Explained, we're going to Brazil.

Little stuff.

You recently spent a week in Brazil.

I spent a week in Poland, where it was eight degrees below zero.

So you got the better assignment, and I hate you for that.

But we both had the same assignment, right?

Tell me what we're doing.

All right, let's talk about what's been going on in Brazil.

Maybe I can start a bit earlier than his victory.