WHAT IS DEMOCRACY TO MAGA:

[A]s it turns out, Brazilian military leaders weren't interested in overthrowing their country's democracy for Bolsonaro. And the Biden administration strongly supported that instinct.

In July 2022, three months before the election, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke at an Americas-wide defense meeting in Brazil and stressed the need to respect civilian officials' authority over the armed forces. In September, the U.S. Senate, led by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, unanimously passed a resolution in support of Brazilian democracy. For months leading up to Brazil's Oct. 2 election and the subsequent Lula-Bolsonaro runoff on Oct. 30, the Biden administration complemented Austin's public words with private communications along diplomatic, military, economic and intelligence channels. As Robbie Gramer reported in Foreign Policy, top officials from the White House, Defense Department, State Department and even CIA held meetings and calls with their Brazilian counterparts to try to head off any effort by Bolsonaro to subvert the election result. 

After the runoff, Biden quickly recognized Lula's win, calling the election "free, fair and credible." This anticipated Brazil's top military brass's joint statement a week and a half after the runoff warning that all political disputes had to be resolved in accordance with democratic rule of law. 

It is reasonable to believe that this all-hands-on-deck American diplomacy played a role in Brazil's military and other national elites' deciding against supporting a Bolsonaro coup.

Trump would have done none of this if he were president.

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