Elon Musk calls him an “evil dictator”. Police officers in São Paulo once nicknamed him “Kojak”, after the shaven-headed New York TV detective who would bend the rules to bust the bad guys. His supporters insist he is a “crusader”, the last line in the defence of democracy in Brazil.
Alexandre de Moraes, the enigmatic supreme court judge who has moved to ban X, Musk’s social media giant, in Brazil, has long defied pigeonholing. A pro-law enforcement former member of one of Brazil’s conservative political parties, he used to be despised by left-wingers. Now he has become an object of hate for many on the right in light of his battle against Musk, a man many idolise.
The feud between the two came to