The essay that the reader has in his hands aims to discuss the affirmation of national populism in Brazil, placing in relation the rise of Bolsonarism with new forms of mediation of politics based on direct communication practices provide by digital social networks. With a look at the 2018 Brazilian Presidential Elections, we explore the political communication strategies of the then candidate for the Social Liberal Party, Jair Bolsonaro, taking into account discursive dimensions proper to populist mechanics. Indeed, we aspire to understand the main conceptualisations about populism and democracy to, in a second moment, reflect on the rise of Bolsonarism as an “anti-political” project, populist in nature, and with roots in the judicial activism of Operation Car Wash. We also conducted a mapping on the supposed relations between the categories of “populism”, “neo-fascism”, “new right” and “Bolsonarism”, in order to better understand the field of political dispute in contemporary Brazil.