A meeting between US President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei. The meeting took place on October 14, 2025, at the White House. Photo: New York Times.
By Leonardo Buitrago – Oct 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump took credit for the victory of La Libertad Avanza (LLA), the party of Argentine President Javier Milei, in last Sunday’s legislative elections. Thus revealing Washington’s political interventionism in the South American nation, accompanied by an economic bailout whose full details are still unknown.
“That was a great victory in Argentina. I want to congratulate the winner, who was a great winner, who had a lot of help from us. I gave him support, very strong support. It was really unexpected to have such a victory. Some people thought it would be difficult to win, and not only did he win, he won by a lot,” Trump said, referring to the election results in which LLA obtained just over 40% of the national vote. Meanwhile turnout fell to 67.85%, the lowest figure since 1983.
In expressing his congratulations, the Republican tycoon included members of his own administration. Specifically his vice president, James Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, highlighting the “great support” given to Javier Milei and making it clear that they are achieving “strong leadership in South America.”
“So, Argentina had a great achievement. I give Scott (Bessent), I give James (Vance), I give everyone, Marco (Rubio), a lot of credit for that.” The White House tenant continued stating “We are allying with many countries in South America, we are focused on South America, and we are gaining strong leverage in South America in many ways, including the fact that we don’t want their drugs, we don’t want drugs in our country.”
Trump’s financial bailout of Milei
The weeks leading up to the election were marked by unprecedented intervention by the US in Argentina. In early October, the Trump administration offered the libertarian government a $20 billion financial bailout in the form of a currency swap, intended to help the country avoid financial collapse as a result of the neoliberal policies implemented by the Casa Rosada.
Subsequently, as the peso remained volatile, the US Treasury began to buy Argentine pesos directly to help sustain the currency’s value, an extraordinary measure on the eve of key elections.
The urgency of the bailout was a response to a critical situation, as Milei’s government had burned through about US$700 million in reserves trying to contain the devaluation, severely depleting international reserves just as investors were showing nervousness about the ruling party’s electoral performance.
“If Milei doesn’t win, we won’t be as generous.”
What began as economic support turned into explicit political conditioning. During a meeting at the White House in mid-October, Trump made clear the link between financial support and election results.
In the middle of a lunch, the Republican tycoon looked Milei in the face and uttered a phrase that left the “libertarian” in a critical and discouraging situation.
“We are here to support you in the upcoming elections.” Then, turning his head toward his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, he completed the sentence with a warning: “But if he doesn’t win, we won’t waste our time: we won’t be generous with Argentina.”
This conditionality was later reiterated to the press, where Trump linked the support not only to the legislative elections on October 26, but also projected his influence to the 2027 presidential elections.
“If Milei doesn’t win the election, I know that the person who would be running in 2027 is a far-left communist responsible for bringing the country to this problem in the first place.
If that happens, then we will not be generous with Argentina,“ said the US president, in what Página/12 reported as an allusion to a possible candidacy by the current governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, whom the Republican considers ”a far-left communist.”
The warning caused immediate turmoil in the markets, with Argentine bonds falling as much as 7% minutes after the statements. Milei’s government tried to control the damage by arguing that Trump was referring to the 2027 presidential elections, not the legislative elections, but the link was established.
