Argentine President Javier Milei finally got his coveted meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump today, which included promises of financial help and effusive expressions of admiration and support from Trump. The two met for no more than 20 minutes following Trump’s address to the UN General Assembly, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Argentine Finance Minister Luis Caputo, and Milei’s sister Karina, the Secretary General of the Presidency, participating.
In the midst of uncontrolled financial and exchange-rate chaos and a run on the peso, and the Oct. 26 midterm elections looming, Milei had been desperate to meet with Trump in hopes U.S. political and financial support could stave off an electoral disaster that is looking increasingly likely. Given the instability of the national economy, which today is largely speculation-driven, and the poverty and social disaster that Milei’s killer libertarian policies have produced, expecting U.S. support to be the decisive factor in the upcoming election is not a good bet.
Early on Sept. 22, Bessent raised Milei’s hopes and boosted the domestic market when he posted to X that Argentina is a “systemically important U.S. ally” and that “all options for stabilization are on the table” to “make Argentina great again.” As Argentina is suffering a dramatic shortage of foreign currency reserves, Bessent said that among the options under consideration were swap lines, direct currency purchases, and purchases of the dollar-denominated government debt from the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund. During today’s meeting, Trump said that he’d be happy to support Argentina financially, without specifying any amount, but added he didn’t think the country needed a bailout.
After the meeting, he posted to Truth Social an effusive message praising Milei as a “fantastic and powerful leader … who has brought stability back to the Argentine economy and lifted it to a new level of prominence and respect.” None of this remotely reflects the economic and political disaster Milei has wreaked on Argentina. Apparently confused that Milei’s primary concern is the Oct. 26 midterm election, Trump offered his “complete and total endorsement for re-election as President”—which election isn’t scheduled until 2027. Financial analysts in Argentina are predicting that whatever U.S. financial support is finally announced, it will at best be temporary, incapable of addressing the depth of the crisis and social unrest that Milei’s policies have created.
