Trump’s Argentina Bailout Is Bad for America but Great for His Hedge Fund Cronies
Policy
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October 24, 2025
Supporting Javier Milei’s austerity regime shows that Trump’s true loyalty is to the neocolonial plutocracy.
U.S. President Donald Trump greets Argentine President Javier Milei as he arrives in the West Wing of the White House, Tuesday, October 14, 2025.
(Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Donald Trump loves cheesy musicals, a fact audible in the tunes of the shows that punctuate his rallies. He has a particular passion for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s film. Evita (1978), an in-depth study of the life of controversial Argentine populist leader Evita Perón. In his book Trump: think like a billionaire (2004), the president calls Evita “my favorite show on Broadway” and says he saw it six times in its original run.
The signature song of Evita is, of course, “Don’t cry for me Argentina”. Trump probably knows the words backwards. So it’s strange, but predictable, that he doesn’t seem to understand what they mean, given that he’s sending billions of dollars to bail out Argentina’s ailing economy while pushing for belt-tightening during his country’s government shutdown. In fact, one might be tempted to ask: “Why Trump only cry for Argentina?
Far-right Argentine President Javier Milei describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist and an admirer of the radical laissez-faire policies of the Austrian school of economics. But his attempt to implement these destructive ideas plunged Argentina into turmoil. Although unfettered austerity might please international investors, it has provoked fury among ordinary Argentines, which could show up in polls during Sunday’s national midterm elections. To appease the anger of Argentine voters, Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took extraordinary steps to stabilize the country’s currency, the peso. Using the Foreign Exchange Stabilization Fund, designed for emergency situations, Bessent set up a $20 billion credit line for the Argentine government. He is working to secure an additional $20 billion in loans for Argentina from banks and investment funds.
Beyond that, Trump’s trade deals have proven to be a boon for Argentine agriculture on many fronts. As The Washington Post reported Thursday,
Current number
Earlier this spring, Trump’s tariffs on China prompted the country to suspend purchases of U.S. soybeans. He then proposed a $20 billion bailout for Argentina, whose soy sales to China have replaced those of American farmers. And this week, Trump announced that the United States would buy beef from Argentina to lower prices for American consumers, opening a divide between him and another bloc of rural supporters: cattle ranchers, whose main industry group disavowed the president on Wednesday while some Republican officials moved to dissuade Trump from the plan.
The bailout alienated some Trump supporters and made an easy target for his enemies. Christian Lovell, an Illinois cattle rancher and senior program director at Farm Action, told CNN: “If Trump goes through with what he’s described, I believe it’s a betrayal of the American rancher. It feels like you’re selling us out to a foreign competitor.” Trump responded to these complaints with a Truth Social article saying that the “cattle ranchers I love” should be grateful for everything he has done for them.
Things aren’t much better in private, where Republican lawmakers have reportedly tried to convince Trump to back down. One exception to this quiet diplomacy approach is Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is not known for her tact. Appearing on Tucker Carlson’s online show Wednesday, Greene described Argentina’s bailout as “one of the grossest things I’ve ever seen.” She added: “I have no idea who is telling our great president, our ‘America First’ president, that this is a good idea. Because, honestly, it’s a punch in the gut to all of our American cattle ranchers, and they’re furious and rightly so…I don’t know how this is ‘America First.’
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, although ideologically opposed to Greene, raised a similar objection. Referring to the Argentine bailout, Sanders asked, “What happened to America First?” »
It is tempting to portray Trump as having abandoned America first for Argentina first. But it would be fairer to say that his solicitude for Milei reveals the true nature of America First, which has less to do with strengthening the United States than with strengthening the power of Trump’s allies in the investor class by supporting plutocrat-friendly regimes.
As columnist Ishaan Tharoor notes in The Washington PostTrump’s decision to support Milei comes amid his previous interference in foreign elections to give a boost to right-wing populists, including in Hungary in 2022 and Poland earlier this year. Furthermore, part of Trump’s America First credo is that the United States needs to focus more on the Western Hemisphere rather than wars in Europe or the Middle East. Trump’s actions in Argentina are consistent with his other moves to escalate intervention in Latin America, including the current push toward war in Venezuela.
During his visit to the White House on October 14, Milei explained that his action was motivated by ideological affinities: “It’s just about helping a great philosophy take over a great country. Argentina is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen, and we want to see it succeed. It’s very simple.” Even more explicitly, Bessent hailed Argentina as a “beacon” that, if successful, would push other Latin American countries to the right.
Trump doesn’t bail out Argentina; he bails Milei out. Or, to be even more precise, it bails out international investors who need their bet on Argentina to pay off. In addition to the credit line set up by the United States, Argentina is the world’s largest debtor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), having recently borrowed $20 billion on top of an existing debt of $43 billion. Like the Trump administration, the IMF is enthusiastic about Milei’s austerity program. Under Milei, Argentina is, as economist Delfina Rossi pointed out in Jacobincaught in the classic debt trap, with payments to foreign creditors tightly capping social spending.
Speaking to John Cassidy of The New YorkerMaurice Obstfeld, former chief economist of the IMF, says: “What is worrying here is that Bessent repeatedly says that we will be here for the long term and that we will do whatever it takes. He is in effect saying to foreign investors: ‘You will be able to get through this’.”
There is a strong conflict of interest in this situation as Bessent has many long-standing ties to international finance. Bessent’s promise to repay the Milei government’s debts is good news, Cassidy notes:
for American hedge funds that invest in Argentine assets. One such fund is Discovery Capital Management, founded by investor Robert Citrone. Late last month, journalist Judd Legum pointed out that Citrone has been a former colleague of Bessent since 2013, when they both worked for George Soros. Subsequently, the Times reported that Citrone was “in close contact with Mr Bessent in the period leading up to the Treasury’s announcement last month”.
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Trump’s bailout of Argentina is part of the broader pattern of self-serving operations that has characterized his corrupt administration. This is part of the questionable business ties his family members have established with Arab autocracies and questionable crypto companies such as Biance (whose founder, Changpeng Zhao, was pardoned by Trump on Thursday for a money laundering conviction). There is no America First or Argentina First policy, only Trump First.
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