Argentina's Milei doubles down on Trump bromance as the world reels from trade shock

Argentina's President Javier Milei arrives to speak before President-elect Donald Trump during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Nov. 14, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Europe vowed retaliation. China plotted tariffs of its own. Mexico scrambled to blunt the blow. But while the world’s leaders were wringing their hands over U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on U.S. imports, Argentina’s right-wing president was ebullient, feted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

As part of his enthusiastic outreach to Trump, Argentine President Javier Milei flew from one of the planet’s southernmost nations all the way to Palm Beach for 24 hours to receive an award honoring his libertarian agenda and, he’d hoped, to chat with Trump, who was also scheduled to attend the right-wing “American Patriot” gala.

“Make Argentina Great Again!” Milei bellowed from the ballroom stage at at Mar-a-Lago late Thursday.

It would have been the fourth face-to-face meeting between the leaders since Trump’s election victory last November as President Milei, who has imposed a sweeping austerity program to fix Argentina’s long troubled economy, offers himself as one of Trump’s strongest allies in the global culture war against the “woke” left.

Argentina waits for the bromance to bear fruit

Whether Milei’s staunch alliance with Trump can actually help crisis-stricken Argentina remains to be seen, analysts say.

“He has a special relationship with Trump that has been good for him politically, but he needs to translate that into being good for the country economically,” said Marcelo J. García, director for the Americas at New York-based geopolitical risk consultancy Horizon Engage. “He hasn’t managed to do that yet.”

Earlier this year, Milei pulled Argentina out of the World Health Organization after the U.S. announced its own exit.

He threatened to quit the Paris climate accord after Trump did. He outlawed gender change treatments for minors after Trump banned transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. He even promoted a cryptocurrency token echoing the $Trump memecoin — at great political cost.

Railing against socialism and feminism at speaking events all over the world — most recently, the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he gifted Elon Musk a giant chain saw modeled after the power tool he wielded during his 2023 campaign — Milei has fashioned himself into something of a MAGA celebrity.

While U.S. partners and rivals alike were criticizing Trump’s tariffs, a tux-clad Milei was holding forth beside a painting of Trump’s pumped fist, reveling in the opportunity to prove himself a dogged champion of the American president.

“As you can see, we conduct policy with actions, not mere words, and on that we agree with President Donald Trump,” Milei told the crowd at Mar-a-Lago, drawing cheers at the mention of the American president’s name as he spoke in Spanish.

A libertarian defends Trump’s tariffs

In Buenos Aires, Milei’s government sought to reconcile Trump’s major round of tariffs with its own radical libertarian ideology and fervent support for free trade.

“We do not believe this is an attack on free trade, quite the opposite,” Milei’s spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, said of Trump’s announcement. “I don’t see why there should be so much concern about this.”

For all the leaders’ mutual flattery, Argentina was slapped with a 10% minimum tariff. But officials framed it as uniquely preferential treatment. The front page of Argentina’s largest-circulation daily, Clarín, declared: “Trump raises the tax on our products less than on other countries.”

In Washington, Argentine Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein on Thursday held what he described as “highly productive” meetings with top U.S. trade negotiator Jamieson Greer and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, releasing rosy statements promising that Argentina was on its way to negotiating a free-trade agreement with the U.S.

Cash-strapped Argentina hopes for an IMF bailout

Milei praised progress toward the free deal in his Mar-a-Lago speech. But far more important to the Argentine leader is a hoped-for US$20 billion bailout with the International Monetary Fund. The badly needed cash would help Milei keep his ambitious economic reforms on track as pressure mounts on the country’s sparse foreign currency reserves.

Milei has already used executive powers to remove the need for Congress to approve a new IMF program. But the loan hasn’t cleared the finish line, with negotiators still haggling over how much cash Argentina, a serial defaulter that owes some $44 billion to the fund, will be allowed to access up-front.

It was against this backdrop on Wednesday that Milei, accompanied by his economy minister, hopped on the plane to the U.S., the fund’s biggest stakeholder. He told journalists he expected “an informal meeting” with Trump, who was instrumental during his first term in helping Argentina secure a major $56 billion loan from the fund in 2018.

Milei mum on Trump meeting

But on Friday, Milei’s much-anticipated photo-op with Trump was nowhere to be found in his publicist’s slick montage of the Argentine president snapping selfies with fans on Mar-a-Lago’s red carpet.

The president’s office said nothing about his meeting — or, nonmeeting — with Trump, and did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Trump arrived at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach very late Thursday evening after attending an event with professional golfers at one of his golf courses near Miami. The White House didn’t say whether he and Milei met.

Major Argentine newspapers cited anonymous officials saying the leaders never met, drawing instant scorn from his political enemies.

“When I woke up, I thought I’d find on TV the photo-op with your ‘friend’ Trump that you went looking for,” left-wing former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner wrote on social media. “What a way to mess around and spend money on nothing.”

Isabel Debre, The Associated Press