Trump makes economic aid to Argentina conditional on Milei remaining in power.
The president has threatened to break the agreement on the 20 billion euro financial swap he has rescued in the country if his coalition loses in the legislative elections.
WashingtonArgentine President Javier Milei is once again relying on the support of the American far right to save face. Last February, he clung to Elon Musk's embrace as the only possible lifeline to navigate the LIBRA fraudulent cryptocurrency crisis. This time, it was Donald Trump himself who gave him the image of himself receiving him at the White House two weeks before the legislative elections in Argentina. This is a new push by the US president, following the unprecedented intervention of the Treasury in the Argentine peso market, to relaunch Milei's government amid corruption scandals and electoral defeats in key provinces.
The Republican's support for Milei during the meeting has become a veiled threat to Argentines ahead of the legislative elections on October 26. After saving the peso from a catastrophic devaluation with the agreement of a swap A $20 billion financial backer, Trump has conditioned the success of this monetary exchange on a favorable outcome for Milei's coalition, La Libertad Avanza, on October 26. The president has said that they would not waste their time in the country if the group loses the elections.
The Republican has drawn a parallel with the New York municipal elections and the Democratic candidate, Zohran Mamdani, and has said that he will not send much money to New York [...] "if it has to be used for stupid, i.e., communist, policies." In a long argument in which he mixed the Argentine parliamentary elections with the 2027 presidential elections, Trump ended up summing it up like this: "If President [Milei] does not win, and I think I know who will compete against him and it will be a person from the extreme left, we will not be as generous with Argentina as has been the case up to now." In September, Trump already made public his support for Milei's reelection.
"He's a great economist," Trump said of Milei, although last week Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had to announce the swap financial support to rescue the country's economy. The Americans' acquisition of the Argentine currency gave oxygen to a suffocated Argentine government that, despite sacrificing more than $2 billion to maintain the value of the Argentine peso, was already considering dipping into the funds it received in April from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if it wanted to avoid a collapse.
A possible free trade agreement
To further boost the far-right leader's coalition, Trump has also hinted at the possibility of establishing a free trade agreement. "We're going to discuss some details today. We want to help Argentina, and we want to help ourselves." The US president has also said he would like to see the country's "dollarization," although he leaves the decision to his economic advisors.
Beyond any ideological sympathy Trump may feel for Milei, who has openly declared himself an admirer of the Republican, his support for the Argentine president is also geopolitical. The Republican sees Milei as a key ally in Latin America. to thwart China's growing influence in the region. In recent weeks, the Republican administration has begun to accelerate its pressure campaign on Latin American governments under the Trumpist reissue of the backyard doctrine. Whether with the military pressure suffered by Venezuela—and which Mexico looks askance at—or with the monetary injection in Buenos Aires, Trump intends to once again impose his interests on his southern neighbors.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also present at the table, considered Argentina to be one of the great allies in the region in this task, placing the country on the same level as Costa Rica and El Salvador. Milei was key, as she broke the neutrality that Argentina had maintained until then with the two commercial powers to completely align herself with Trump.
The Republican, in fact, reminded Milei that Buenos Aires should not do anything with Beijing in the military sphere. Even so, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was quick to explain that the agreement that has been reached on the swap The financial crisis is not based on Argentina ending the swap with Beijing. "US assistance to Argentina is not conditioned on the end of the swap agreement with China," he said.
For her part, Milei—who spoke throughout the meeting in Spanish—thanked the president for his economic assistance in preventing "communism" and congratulated him on his peacemaking work in the Middle East.