Trump's Corrupt Argentina Bailout

It is a waste of U.S. resources in a bid to rescue Milei’s political fortunes.

The president is facing more opposition over his corrupt political favor to Javier Milei in Argentina:

But Trump’s moves to help Milei ahead of midterm elections in Argentina this Sunday have attracted criticism from across the political spectrum, including from some of the president’s closest Maga allies and Republicans in farm states.

“I do think that the administration will have difficulty explaining how ‘Argentina first’ is ‘America first,’” said Brad Setser, a former US Treasury official at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“They aren’t necessarily taking a hard-headed assessment of America’s interests and . . . they are a little too keen to provide support to Milei without insisting on the kind of significant policy changes that normally accompanies that support.”

Trump’s Argentina bailout makes no sense for the United States. There is broad agreement that trying to prop up their currency is a losing proposition. It is a waste of U.S. resources in a bid to rescue Milei’s political fortunes.

It is also more evidence of how the president is corrupting and distorting U.S. foreign policy to benefit his political allies and cronies. The president admitted that the bailout was a naked political favor for Milei when he said that the U.S. wouldn’t help Argentina if Milei’s party lost: “If he wins we’re staying with him, and if he doesn’t win we’re gone.”