[28] Bolsonaro spent most of his childhood moving around São Paulo with his family, living in Ribeira, Jundiaí, and Sete Barras, before settling in Eldorado, in the state's southern region, in 1966, where he grew up with his five brothers.

[33] Despite being reprimanded by his superiors, Bolsonaro received praise from fellow officers and wives of military men, becoming a household name for hardliners and right-wingers who were growing disenchanted with Brazil's new civilian democratic government.

[53] Bolsonaro's promises to restore security amid record high crime and to stamp out Brazil's rampant political corruption won him huge popular support.

[65][66] The "edge of the beach", a Bolsonaro aide later confirmed, was a reference to a Navy base at Restinga da Marambaia, in Rio de Janeiro State, where the Brazilian military dictatorship tortured and killed dissidents.

According to an investigation by Folha, one of Brazil's bestselling newspapers, "Bolsonaro has been getting an illegal helping hand from a group of Brazilian entrepreneurs who are bankrolling a campaign to bombard WhatsApp users with fake news about Haddad".

[95] A medical report produced for a second investigation concluded that Bispo is mentally disturbed, having a "permanent paranoid delusional disorder" which, according to Brazilian law, prevents him from being considered legally liable for his actions.

[112] Early in his administration, Bolsonaro focused primarily on domestic and economic issues, ranging from tax reform to changes in social security, but he faced an uphill battle with Congress.

Bolsonaro received the award for "surrounding himself with corrupt figures, using propaganda to promote his populist agenda, undermining the justice system, and waging a destructive war against the Amazon region that has enriched some of the country's worst land owners".

[130] Days after Brazil surpassed Russia as the country worst hit by COVID, Bolsonaro held a political rally in Brasília; while surrounded by supporters and his own security guards, who were wearing masks, he did not.

The opposition signed a document with multiple accusations, such as blaming Bolsonaro for the deaths of 500,000 Brazilians from COVID-19, stating that his government had blatantly turned down expert advice on tackling the virus, and at least 20 other grievances.

[177] On 30 June 2023, the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court barred Bolsonaro from running for public office until 2030 as a result of his attempts to undermine the validity of Brazil's 2022 democratic election, as well as for abuse of power with regard to using government channels to promote his campaign.

[179][180] On 31 October 2023, Bolsonaro was again convicted by the Superior Electoral Court over abuse of power for using official Brazil's Independence Day ceremony to promote himself as a candidate which is banned under the Brazilian law.

[181] In February 2024, the Brazilian Federal Police raided former government officials and ordered Bolsonaro to hand in his passport over accusations that he and his allies tried to overturn the results of the 2022 election and planned a coup d'état.

This happened after his Brazilian and Italian passports were confiscated, and Bolsonaro was prohibited from leaving the country due to an investigation about an alleged plot to carry out a military coup in Brazil.

[200] Bolsonaro is viewed as an anti-abortion,[201] anti-establishment, and pro-gun politician, voicing opposition to most forms of gun laws in Brazil, arguing that law-abiding citizens have the right to self-defence, especially those living in rural areas.

Most notably, he has been a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage,[6] environmental regulations,[204] abortion,[8] affirmative action (particularly racial quotas),[9] as well as immigration,[205] particularly from Haiti, Africa and the Middle East, which he once called "the scum of humanity".

[224] Federico Finchelstein, scholar on fascism and populism, has considered Bolsonaro, as he would link violence to austerity and neoliberal economic ideas, to be the most similar leader to Augusto Pinochet to come out from the young South American democracies.

[242][243] The comments were made in front of Paraguayan president Mario Abdo Benítez, himself a child of Stroessner's personal secretary, Mario Abdo Benítez Sr.[244] Speaking before his vote in favor of President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment amid the massive corruption scandal, Bolsonaro paid homage to Colonel Brilhante Ustra, an agent of Brazil's military dictatorship, and announced on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies that he was dedicating his pro-impeachment vote to Ustra's memory.

[14] At the regional level, Bolsonaro praised Argentine President Mauricio Macri for ending the 12-year rule of Néstor and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, which he saw as similar to Lula and Rousseff.

... Bolsonaro has chafed at foreign pressure to safeguard the Amazon rainforest, and he served notice to international nonprofit groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature that he will not tolerate their agendas in Brazil.

[285] Ernesto Araújo, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs appointed by Bolsonaro, has called global warming a plot by "cultural Marxists",[286] and eliminated the Climate Change Division of the ministry.

[284] In April 2019, the American Museum of Natural History canceled an event honouring Bolsonaro after facing heavy public criticism, including from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"[287] Bolsonaro supported plans to open the Reserva Nacional do Cobre e Associados (Renca) Amazonian reserve in Brazil's northern states of Pará and Amapá to commercial mining.

Sociologist Christina Vital of the Fluminense Federal University stated that this act was more than an expression of conversion to Evangelicalism and was meant to create an ambiguous religious identity, through which the Bolsonaro family could appeal to the various groups of voters.

[330] One week before the second round, Bolsonaro said during a speech that in his administration "petralhas" and "reds" (i.e. leftists) would be arrested, purged or taken to the "corner of the beach", a term that was later revealed to mean a Navy base where dissidents of the Brazilian military dictatorship were murdered.

[67] In 1999, talking about Chico Lopes, a former president of the Brazilian Central Bank who invoked his right to remain silent during a Congress hearing, Bolsonaro declared himself in favor of torture in this sort of situation.

[333] In 2011, when asked by Afro-Brazilian singer Preta Gil on TV show Custe o Que Custar (CQC) what he would do if one of his sons had a Black girlfriend, he answered that he "would not discuss promiscuity" and that there was "no such risk", because his children were "very well educated".

[337] In 2011, he was accused of racism after questioning the capabilities of Black and indigenous graduates who benefitted from affirmative action, claiming that he would not fly on an airplane piloted by one of them, nor accept a doctor who was admitted to a university through racial quotas to perform surgery on him.

[9] Bolsonaro provoked considerable controversy for public remarks made in July 2008, where he proposed to provide poor people with birth control methods, who he suggested might be too uneducated to understand family planning education.

[358] In July 2024, Brazil's Federal Police charged Jair Bolsonaro with money laundering and criminal conspiracy related to undeclared diamonds that he allegedly received from Saudi Arabia while he was in office.