Amid conflicting reports about Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro fleeing to the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election, Bloomberg has reported that he has landed in the US, while other reports have yet to independently confirm his arrival. The development comes after Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the defeated right-wing candidate to surrender his passports within 24 hours, citing the risk that he could flee the country.The son of jailed former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro lost the election to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and has refused to concede defeat. Two sources told Reuters that Flavio’s passports were cancelled after he failed to meet the court’s deadline to surrender them.A senior US State Department official told Reuters on Tuesday that the agency would grant entry visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family. A source close to the family told Reuters that Flavio had landed in Florida, though the exact whereabouts of his wife and two daughters were not immediately clear.Why was Bolsonaro asked to surrender his passport?The Supreme Court’s order is linked to a money laundering probe which Bolsonaro has denied. In its ruling, the court cited the risk of him fleeing Brazil and his “significant financial resources” as reasons to seize his passports.Bolsonaro had said on Monday that he had no plans to leave the country and would surrender his passports to defend himself against what he called an attempt to intimidate him.“I have never thought about leaving the country,” he said. “I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me.”However, it remains unclear how he was able to leave Brazil. A senior Federal Police official told Reuters that Bolsonaro had not exited the country through any regular migration point.Story continues below this adTrump backs Bolsonaro’s entry into USUS President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he approved of Flavio Bolsonaro coming to the United States, describing him and his family as “fine people”.“Well, I would approve. I think they’re fine people. The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible. It’s gotten bad reviews. You look at what happened to their market,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after returning from campaigning in Texas, according to Reuters.The US State Department had earlier said it would grant visas to Bolsonaro and his family.Bolsonaro’s manager says he has not heard from himBolsonaro’s departure appeared to have caught his campaign manager, Senator Rogério Marinho, off guard. Marinho said he had not spoken to the defeated candidate since early Tuesday morning and had received only a text message from him.Story continues below this ad“We had no news from Flávio or his lawyers about what happened,” Marinho said, according to the Associated Press. “I received a text message from him, he said he wanted to take a break and then he would talk to us. That’s the only message I had from him.”Lula calls Bolsonaro’s departure shamefulLula criticised Bolsonaro’s reported departure, calling it shameful and saying he should have remained in Brazil to prove his innocence.Although Bolsonaro had called for the election result to be annulled over alleged voter irregularities, his Liberal Party subsequently acknowledged Lula’s victory.The episode could further strain relations between Brazil and the United States. Lula has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaro family to return them to power.Story continues below this adJair Bolsonaro himself travelled to the United States after refusing to concede defeat to Lula in 2022. He later returned to Brazil and was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup following his supporters’ storming of government buildings in Brasilia.