BRASÍLIA — Michelle Bolsonaro sits beside a golden sculpture of a hand signing “I love you.” Looking directly into the camera, the wife of former president Jair Bolsonaro then proceeds to rip into his son.

Flávio Bolsonaro is running for president of Brazil, in part to get his father, an ally of President Donald Trump, out of prison. Michelle Bolsonaro, who has headed the women’s wing of their right-wing party, has spent the past year recruiting and training conservative Christian women for political leadership.

“He was very harsh with me, disrespected and mistreated me,” she says. He told her to stay out of party decisions, she says, because she “didn’t understand anything about politics.”

“After that humiliation,” she concludes, “I understood he didn’t want my support.”

The family drama, coming little more than three months before the presidential election, is the latest challenge to Flávio’s campaign to unseat leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In a close race, evangelicals and women — voters with whom Michelle is influential — could prove decisive.

At a time when right-wing politicians are ascendant across Latin America, Trump has signaled his preference. In early June, he welcome Flávio to the White House for an Oval Office visit and posted photos of them afterward, calling him: “A smart young man who loves his Country, Brazil, very much!”

Michelle released the video as Brazil was preparing to play Scotland in the World Cup. Flávio initially attempted to brush it off. It’s “game day,” he said in a video posted to social media. “Nothing and no one” would spoil his good mood. The next day he said he had never intended to disrespect Michelle. “If I did, I apologize,” he said in another video.

Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a military coup after he lost the 2022 election to Lula, has yet to weigh in publicly. It was Jair who chose Flávio last year to challenge Lula, after some called for Michelle to run.

For Flávio, Michelle’s video comes at an already difficult time. He has been trying to recover from revelations that he sought millions of dollars from a banker accused of orchestrating one of Brazil’s largest financial frauds to finance a film about Jair.

Early in the race, Flávio was polling roughly even with Lula. After Intercept Brasil published recordings of the exchange in May, he dropped four to seven percentage points back. More recently, his slide appeared to have begun stabilizing in this very polarized country.

Women, who make up majorities of Brazil’s electorate and its evangelicals, were crucial to Jair Bolsonaro’s victory in 2018 but shifted toward Lula in 2022. Both campaigns see those groups as key to winning the vote in October.

Michelle, an evangelical Christian herself, has helped the Bolsonaros connect with them. Her campaign to promote conservative women in politics is expected to helped elect a record number of them to Congress.

Reports of tension among the former first family are not new. But Michelle’s video is the first time she has aired the dispute in such detail, using archival recordings, graphics and a script.

Flávio’s allies are increasingly concerned that Michelle’s public rebuke could become a defining setback of his candidacy before the campaign officially starts in August.

“If we don’t come to an understanding, we’ll lose the election and Jair Bolsonaro will be the one to pay the price,” Valdemar Costa Neto, his party’s chairman, told Rádio Gaúcha.

Some are urging Flávio to announce a female running mate to stem losses among women and evangelical voters. Michelle’s supporters say the episode has underscored her political strength and should reestablish her as one of the most important voices within her husband’s movement.

On Tuesday, she stepped down as head of the women’s wing. “My priority right now is taking care of my family and my husband, who needs me,” she said in the video. “My political future is in God’s hands. He will provide everything.”