Despite serving more than 25 years in Congress, Bolsonaro appears eager to present himself as a political outsider — a no-nonsense figure defiantly challenging the status quo. Or, as he puts it to NPR, as a “little ugly duckling.” “We don’t have a big team. We have a very small party,” says Bolsonaro. “A big part of the media doesn’t treat us properly, and even then — without Lula — we are leading the national polls.” Until recently, Bolsonaro was on the margins of Brazilian politics, a seven-term congressman who occasionally featured in the headlines, mostly for making offensive remarks about the LGBTQ community, women and Afro-Brazilians.