President Donald Trump praised his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, whose party scored a major electoral victory in the South American country’s midterm legislative elections on Sunday, after the Trump administration handed the libertarian leader’s government a major financial lifeline earlier this month.
Key data
Milei’s right-wing libertarian party La Libertad Avanza won more than 40% of the votes cast in Sunday’s election, beating the left-wing Peronist coalition, which received 31%.
The results mean La Libertad Avanza will win 64 seats for a total of 92 in Argentina’s 257-member Chamber of Deputies, which is enough to protect Milei’s veto power over any legislation.
In his victory speech, Milei stated that he now has the support of 101 members of the lower house and 20 senators, which will allow him to continue with his spending cuts, tax and labor reforms.
In his speech, Milei told his supporters that the elections marked a “turning point” for the country and added: “Today we begin the construction of a great Argentina.”
Shortly after Milei’s election victory, Trump published a post on Truth Social, saying: “Congratulations to President Javier Milei on his landslide victory in Argentina. He is doing a wonderful job! Our trust in him was justified by the people of Argentina.”)
The president also shared a post from X that cited a comment from the Peronist coalition leadership, describing Trump as Millei’s “campaign manager.”
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What else did Trump say about Millei’s victory?
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to Japan on Monday, Trump was asked about Millei’s victory and said he wanted to “congratulate the victor, and he was a great victor, and he got a lot of help from us.” The president’s comments referred to a $40 billion financial lifeline his administration extended to the Latin American country’s struggling economy. Trump had conditioned the economic rescue package on a good performance by the party of his close ideological ally, Millei. On Monday, Trump appeared to take credit for Millei’s big win, saying, “I gave him an endorsement, a very strong endorsement, and it was really unexpected… people thought it would be difficult (for Millei) to win, and not only did he win, he won by a lot.”
Key background
Earlier this month, Trump gave Milei a financial lifeline by agreeing to a $20 billion currency swap deal with Argentina’s central bank. At the time, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated: “The United States Treasury is prepared, immediately, to take any exceptional measures necessary to stabilize markets.” Trump hosted Milei at the White House a few days later, where he warned that financial assistance was contingent on Milei’s party winning the midterm elections. Trump described the Peronist coalition as “far left” and stated: “We are not going to allow someone to come to power and waste the taxpayers’ money of this country. “I’m not going to allow that to happen… If (Milei) loses, we will not be generous with Argentina.” A few days later, Bessent stated that the United States is working to double the financial package with the help of private lenders. “We are working on a $20 billion facility that would complement our swap line, with private banks and sovereign funds that, I believe, would be more focused on the debt market.” Milei, who describes himself as an “anarcho-capitalist,” has been a staunch supporter of Trump for several years.
This article was originally published by Forbes US.
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