Today was supposed to be Argentine President Javier Milei’s dream visit to the White House for a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, where he would hopefully receive promises of further financial aid beyond the $20 billion currency swap and purchase of an unspecified amount of pesos announced by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Oct. 9, seen as a bailout of the financial markets before Argentina’s Oct. 26 midterm legislative elections. As he boarded the plane in Buenos Aires the night of Oct. 13, President Milei euphorically proclaimed that Argentina is “a true ally” of the United States and Israel, and agreed with the idea that Trump should become “the leader of the American continent,” reported the daily Página 12.
But things didn’t quite turn out to be as rosy as Milei had expected. Trump was delayed in returning from his trip to Egypt. Trump’s original noon arrival at the White House was scaled back to 2:00 p.m., and Milei appeared briefly in the Oval Office with Trump at 2:45 p.m. for a photograph. Otherwise, the bilateral meeting was canceled with no explanation and replaced by a press conference in the Cabinet Room, in which Trump answered questions on a variety of topics, including on Argentina, which was followed by a “working lunch” with the two nations’ delegations. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Scott Bessent all attended. The absence of specific news on further U.S. aid, aside from mention of trade deals, caused bonds on the Argentine market to plunge.
