A Trump-Bolsonaro bromance is brewing after Brazilian's big win

He has vowed to drain the swamp, slash regulations and get tough with China. Evangelicals and gun-rights advocates love him. He has denounced the media as "fake news". Political foes? Lock 'em up.

Brazil's president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, is an ardent admirer — and shrewd imitator — of his US counterpart Donald Trump. And that could usher in one of the warmest bilateral relationships in the western hemisphere.

Trump called to congratulate Bolsonaro on Sunday night, shortly after the far-right congressman scored a resounding victory at the polls, winning 55 percent of the vote following a mud-slinging campaign with a leftist rival.

Bolsonaro and Trump spoke of "a strong commitment to work side-by-side" on issues affecting Brazil, the United States and beyond, the White House said.

Trump has bullied and wrangled with other leaders in the Americas, including Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto.

But in Bolsonaro, Trump will find a doppelgänger whose world view and pugnacious style are strikingly similar to his own.

"Just like he wants to make America great, I want to make Brazil great," Bolsonaro, a former army captain, said in a televised interview in July.

The 63-year-old ran as an outsider bent on smashing what he sees as a corrupt and hidebound political system that has forgotten ordinary citizens. His fiery rhetoric and slurs against gays, women and minorities have thrilled followers, who view him as an authentic straight shooter. He has championed law and order, patriotism and religious values. And he has demonised his leftist detractors as enemies of the people.

While many world leaders have held Trump at arm's length, Bolsonaro has made no secret of his esteem. He has praised America's 45th president as a gutsy, decisive commander who has prevailed in the face of unfair criticism.

"Trump faced the same attacks I am facing - that he was a homophobe, a fascist, a racist, a Nazi," Bolsonaro said last year before his candidacy caught fire. "But the people believed in his platform. I was rooting for him."

Such blandishments are likely to play well with Trump, who has shown an affinity for authoritarian leaders, particularly those who flatter and cajole him.

Bolsonaro is also questioning Brazil's relationship with China, which he views as a predatory economic partner. The Asian giant is Brazil's biggest foreign buyer of soybeans, iron ore and other commodities. But Bolsonaro is alarmed at a spate of Chinese purchases of Brazilian energy and infrastructure companies.

"The Chinese are not buying in Brazil. They are buying Brazil," Bolsonaro has warned repeatedly.

Such talk is likely to please Trump, whose tariffs on Chinese goods have ignited a trade war that has much of the world blaming the United States for disrupting global supply chains and rattling markets worldwide.