Donald Trump Is Bailing Out Javier Milei’s Austerity Regime
Argentine president Javier Milei had a lot to celebrate during his recent visit to Washington, DC.
While Americans deal with an ongoing government shutdown, mass federal firings, and looming safety net cuts that could plunge millions into poverty, the Trump administration pledged $20 billion to bail out Argentina’s flailing economy.
The timing couldn’t be better for Milei as he faces down an election later this month where economic distress is threatening to tank his party’s chances.
The massive infusion of dollars might calm some investors, but for Argentina’s working class the deal looks like another cynical political ploy in a long legacy of harmful foreign bailouts. President Donald Trump’s warning that the investment might not go through if “a socialist or a communist wins” in Argentina’s upcoming elections all but confirms the political motivations behind the bailout.
Austerity Across the Hemisphere
The United States wants news of the bailout to “calm the economic crisis and help politically so that there’s a relatively favorable result for the government that allows Milei to pursue structural reforms,” explains Julio Gambina of the National Coordinating Roundtable of Organizations of Retirees and Pensioners of the Republic of Argentina.
In the lingo of international finance, “structural reforms” or “structural adjustments” generally refer to privatization and significant cuts in social spending and public programs.
Milei’s tenure has been disastrous for Argentina’s pensioners. His structural adjustments have left the country’s retirees with an average monthly pension of around 385,000 pesos — roughly $280. That’s below the poverty line and, studies suggest, just a third of the amount needed to cover basic necessities. Almost 20 percent of Argentina’s older adults have to work to subsist.
Cutbacks have also affected the country’s public health insurance for the elderly, PAMI, which no longer covers 100 percent of the cost of many necessary medications, despite workers paying into the program their whole careers.
The Institute for Policy Studies, my organization, recently recognized the Argentine retirees group with its yearly Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award for standing up to austerity. Accepting the award on behalf of the organization was Marcos Wolman, a longtime leader in the movement who turns ninety in November.
