Trump says Argentina bailout contingent on his political ally Milei remaining in power

By Kevin Liptak, CNN

(CNN) — If President Donald Trump is worried the $20 billion economic lifeline he’s sending to Argentina in the middle of a US government shutdown might cause him political headaches, he didn’t show it Tuesday.

Instead, as he sat for lunch with his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, Trump said in no uncertain terms that the injection of US dollars was about bolstering a top ideological ally who faces a political reckoning. And he was explicit that US economic support is conditional on Milei remaining in power.

“If he wins, we’re staying with him,” Trump said in the Cabinet Room, betraying little concern about blowback for the infusion of cash his officials insist is not a bailout. “And if he doesn’t win, we’re gone.”

Perhaps no world leader has embraced Trump and his slash-and-burn approach more than Milei, who — with his mop of dark hair, black leather jacket, past life as frontman in a Rolling Stones tribute band and pack of English mastiffs he claims provide him with political advice — has become a fixture in the global conservative movement.

“He’s MAGA all the way. It’s Make Argentina Great Again,” Trump said Tuesday.

The embrace has paid off handsomely for Milei. Speaking Tuesday, Trump said the US wouldn’t be offering the financial lifeline if another party enters power.

“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” he said.

It was a stark example of Trump rewarding a kindred spirit on the world stage. Milei was elected on a pledge to slash through Argentina’s bloated bureaucracy and to rid the government of “woke leftists.” He was the first world leader to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago after last November’s American election. He was one of only two world leaders to attend Trump’s inauguration.

And when then-Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk wielded a chainsaw this year at a conservative conference outside Washington, it was Milei who’d gifted him the prop onstage beforehand.

“He’s done an incredible job. But with that comes some pain, and they have some pain, and now they’re coming out of it. I think the victory is very important,” Trump told Milei on Tuesday. “Your poll numbers are pretty good, but I think they’ll be better after this.”

For Trump officials, having a likeminded and enthusiastic ally in Buenos Aires has been viewed as a boon. The country has large deposits of key minerals, like lithium and copper, that are critical to US manufacturing.

Both US and Chinese companies have made major investments in Argentine lithium mines, and administration officials say they see a risk of Argentina, a major economy in South America, strengthening its ties with China. Strong relations with Milei’s government have been seen as a bulwark to Beijing’s influence, though a recent spat over Chinese soybean purchases has shown the limits of US clout.

Like Trump, Milei has slashed government spending, cut regulations and fired tens of thousands of public-sector workers since taking office in 2023. His administration has seen some success; inflation in Argentina eased this year to the slowest monthly pace in more than four years.

So it was with deep concern that US officials watched as the country’s currency fell sharply after Milei’s party suffered a significant defeat in elections last month. The losses shook investors’ confidence in Milei’s ability to see through his economic reforms, putting Argentina at risk of a financial collapse. The next legislative elections in Argentina take place on October 26.

That, in part, explains Trump’s decision to provide a $20 billion lifeline that has drawn rebukes from even some political allies even as his administration publicly defends it.

“It is much better to form an economic bridge with our allies, people who want to do the right thing, then have to have shoot at narco gunboats,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at Tuesday’s meeting, referring to the administration’s strikes on boats near Venezuela. “So we think that this is an opportunity for the Argentinian people, and President Milei is the one to do it.”

Bessent has said the US agreed to a currency swap with Argentina’s central bank, allowing it to exchange its local currency for the US dollar. Experts say it’s essentially a $20 billion loan.

But geopolitics — and personal affinity — aside, the appearance of bailing out another country at a moment when Americans are concerned about rising prices and slow hiring has led to fierce blowback.

It has even led to internal disputes among some of Trump’s Cabinet members (revealed last month in an Associated Press photograph of his Treasury secretary’s text messages with a contact named “BR,” presumed to be Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins).

“While I recognize that President Milei and his government have demonstrated resolve in tackling Argentina’s endemic economic challenges, the American people expect and deserve answers about the use of such a staggering amount of their tax dollars, and I will use my position in the Senate to ensure there is accountability,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Tuesday.

The timing — coming in the middle of a government shutdown as many federal workers go without pay — heightened some of the pushback.

So did the sale of tens of thousands of dollars of Argentine soybeans to China, which has halted purchases from US farmers in response to Trump’s trade war. Argentina, meanwhile, temporarily scrapped export taxes on grains.

“Why would USA help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers’ biggest market???” wondered Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa last month. Iowa is a top soybean-producing state.

Trump shrugged off the implications of China attempting to drive a wedge between the US and Argentina, saying, “It’s natural, it’s China.”

Within the hour, however, he’d issued a new threat.

“We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in response to what he called China’s “economically hostile act.”

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