Paris and New York were the most expensive destinations; in total, R$18 million was spent on accommodation alone
The president’s (PT) international trips in 2025 cost at least R$44.4 million to the public coffers. The amount was used to pay for 16 official trips throughout the year to multilateral forums and state visits.
The president spent 50 days outside Brazil during the year. It was a return to a more intense pace of international commitments after the reduction of the external agenda in 2024.
In total, Lula visited 19 countries. Asia concentrated the PT member’s longest period abroad, with 18 days spent traveling to Vietnam, Japan, China, Indonesia and Malaysia.
But the most expensive trip was , which included a state visit and the UN Ocean Conference (United Nations). The turnover cost R$12.06 million in 6 days. Next, in order of costs, are travel, with expenditure of R$8.66 million, and, which totaled R$6.72 million.
Data shows that car rental and accommodation represent almost 90% of expenses. The hiring of cars and related services totaled R$20.5 million, while the hotel sector reached R$18.8 million. There are also expenses for rooms, interpreters and services.
First Lady Janja Lula da Silva accompanied Lula on some of the international missions and participated in others alone. According to a survey by the Poder360she spent 54 days outside the country in 2025 on 9 trips. The expenses of these agendas are not detailed in the official data requested by the Poder360.
The Ministry of Development and Social Assistance declared that it only paid for Rosângela Lula da Silva’s air tickets, in February 2025, as a casual collaborator. The ministry said there were no daily payments or security expenses. According to , the first lady spent an average of 6 days away for the occasion with tickets costing around R$34,000. It cost at least R$260 thousand, at least Poder360.
Trip to France concentrated the biggest expense
Lula’s trip to France was the most expensive on the 2025 international agenda. Accommodation expenses totaled R$6.34 million. In addition to spending on hotels, the high cost was also driven by vehicle rental and support services, categories that lead the total spending on the president’s international agenda. FAB flight expenses are not included in the calculation, as they remain confidential. In total, the French tour cost R$12 million.
In Paris, where the president made a state visit and participated in official meetings with President Emmanuel Macron, hotel rates reached more than R$64,000 per night. In Nice, headquarters of the UN Oceans Conference, there were records of daily rates of up to R$35,700, according to information published by Poder360.
The delegation in Paris was large and brought together 14 authorities, including 8 ministers of state. In addition to Lula and Janja, ministers Ricardo Lewandowski (Justice), Mauro Vieira (Foreign Affairs), Silvio Costa Filho (Ports and Airports), Carlos Fávaro (Agriculture), Margareth Menezes (Culture), Alexandre Silveira (Mines and Energy) and Marina Silva (Environment) were in the French capital.
The delegation also included the Navy commander, Admiral Marco Antonio Olsen; the director general of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues; the president of ApexBrasil, Jorge Viana; and the president of Fiocruz, Mario Moreira.
The stage in Nice had a reduced delegation, made up of 7 members, focused on the environmental and energy agenda. The government justified the structure of the trip due to the strategic nature of the commitments.
Despite being the most expensive trip, Europe received less attention in 2025. The year marked the return of the search strategy for “international prominence” from the government, focused on climate, multipolarity and South-South cooperation.
The president has prioritized international forums to advocate for global governance reform and climate finance. Participated in , in and in . Multilateral commitments represented half of the trips carried out in 2025.
The intensification of these agendas occurs at a time of increasing global polarization. The United States National Security Strategy, launched in December 2025, for example, revisits Cold War concepts about dividing the world into areas of influence and reaffirms the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere. The document ignores Brics – a bloc of which Brazil is part along with Russia, India, China, South Africa, among other countries.
METHODOLOGY
Detailed data for each trip was made available in different currencies, depending on the destination country and type of expense. Each expense item was extracted individually from the official spreadsheets. Similar expenses were grouped by category. For example, entries related to press services were added to form the total for this item.
After consolidation by category, each item was converted separately into reais, considering the original currency in which it was reported. The conversion was carried out individually, item by item, using the . With all values converted, the amounts were added to arrive at the total cost of each trip. The grand total results from the sum of individual trips.
The MRE (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) informed that part of the expenses is available on the Travel Panel and the Transparency Portal. However, the platforms do not allow individual identification of all expenses linked specifically to the President of the Republic’s travels.
In the Travel Panel, queries by destination do not necessarily return the name of the president as the beneficiary of the expense. The Transparency Portal contains specific records associated with the president, such as insurance expenses, without full details of other items.
Given this traceability limitation, the survey exclusively considered the values officially detailed via LAI, in order to avoid duplication, undercounting or methodological inconsistency.
The calculation of days outside the country considers as 1 day every time the president is absent from Brazil during the majority of working hours on that date (from 8 am to 5 pm). The absence starts to be counted from the moment of boarding, as, technically, from that point onwards the president no longer exercises leadership of the Executive in the national territory.
In a note, Itamaraty states that presidential trips are part of Brazil’s international repositioning strategy. According to the government, external action contributed to the opening of more than 500 markets and the reduction of tariffs imposed by the United States.
