Bolsonaro says Trump approved his son as ambassador to Washington

BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Friday the United States has approved the nomination of his son Eduardo as ambassador to Washington.

“I’m delighted and I’m sure the friendly and commercial ties will be strengthened thanks to Eduardo,” said Bolsonaro at an impromptu press conference at the presidential palace in Brasilia.

Brazil has received an “agreement” from US authorities that would allow Bolsonaro to officially name his 35-year-old son to the post.

However, the appointment would still need to be approved by the Brazilian Senate.

Bolsonaro said he wasn’t “in a hurry” to send his nomination to the senate, although last week he said he was sure it would be accepted.

The far-right leader said he’d even received a letter from US President Donald Trump, written “by his own hand,” approving the nomination.

Trump described it on July 30 as “a great appointment,” praising Eduardo as “outstanding.”

“I don’t think it’s nepotism,” said Trump, who counts his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner among his most senior advisers.

Bolsonaro had promised to fight cronyism as well as rampant corruption while campaigning for president last year.

Eduardo Bolsonaro pushed his own case last month, citing his experience flipping hamburgers in the United States during a work exchange program in 2005.

In March, Eduardo said on Twitter that when he was younger he “washed plates with Mexicans and Peruvians in a kitchen surrounded by snow in Maine and Colorado.”

Bolsonaro, who heads the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of Brazil’s Congress, has no previous diplomatic experience.

But he accompanied his father to a private meeting with Trump during a diplomatic visit to Washington in March.