Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, is the lucky winner of $40 billion that Donald Trump managed to conjure from thin air. Less lucky are the Americans who rely on the government programs Trump has gutted to be able to “save” that sum.
Dems need to tie the money to Argentina directly to the the loss of the Obamacare subsidies - you are losing your health care so Trump can just give away the money to a foreign country who kisses his ass instead.
All Americans on Obamacare will be getting letters before Nov 1 informing them of the enormous increase in their health care premiums, including a LOT of MAGAs. Dems need to drill it home to those MAGAs that the reason they will be paying many times more for health care, or losing it altogether, is because they’re money went to Argentina.
Why Argentina? Maybe because Argentina has a strong history of offering sanctuary to Nazis, and Trump is just buying access for when everything inevitably melts down.
Argentina and Israel have universal healthcare for their citizens….yet we send them billions
Dude is just draining our economy for personal gain.
I bet half of this (probably why he chose to double it) will be waiting for him in his bunker when he finally has to flee.
He’s doing to America, exactly what he did to his casinos. He didn’t run them out of business because he was a terrible businessman (even though he is), it was a deliberate strategy: suck out every penny of profit, declare bankruptcy, and stick all of his creditors with the bills. Rinse, and repeat, over and over.
Now he is doing it with America, allowing all of his Psychopathic Oligarchs to loot America until there is nothing left. We see our beautiful country, but they only see a fat, rich, lazy target to be exploited into bankruptcy.
Yup, this is what “running America like a business” looks like.
That’s another thing that Dems should be fighting. The government is NOT a business, and shouldn’t be run like one. The government is far larger than ALL businesses combined, and is tasked with regulating those corporations, and the business environment. Running a business, and running America, require two totally separate skill sets, which both require specialized training.
The problem is that businessmen become successful, and when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So they start to think that the answer to America’s problems is to apply proven business strategies, and then they get confused when it never works out. Profit should not be a nation’s objective.
That’s a primary reason that I automatically reject any billionaire, or even multi-millionaire, candidate. Even if their heart is in the right place (which it seldom is with Oligarchs), their policy concepts are flawed by their insistence on their adherence to profit strategies.
The bottom line is that America does not exist to make a profit.
Not sure what you’re talking about. I’m not American, but this action is pretty clear to me. Milei came into power promising to resolve the economic crisis of Argentina through extreme liberalisation of economy and with stronger bonds with the USA. The USA indeed benefits from these bonds, through the privatisation of companies and natural resources as well as the possibility to act as a foreign investor. However, the economic crisis has not been resolved: life is expensive and salaries are low. This year there are elections in Argentina, there is the possibility of a change of government to a party which may not be so friendly to the USA. By giving Milei a large sum of money Trump gets more support from Milei directly (and probably some favours and concessions) as well as a higher chance that Milei gets reelected. With that money Milei can give subsidies and enact reforms which the people will appreciate and point out how his reforms worked out, as well as show that his bonds with the USA are beneficial to the country.
You say Trump is draining the economy of USA for his personal gain, but this very much does not seem the case. Looking at the history of Latin America this looks much more as a small investment to drain the Argentinian economy.
Dude, he said he will only give the money if Millei wins again. It’s a direct bribe to the people of Argentina.
I’m not sure, the article does not say so. Regardless, my analysis is independent from this fact. My main point is that this is not Trump stealing money from the government, but rather Trump investing money to gain a strong influence on a country that has always been rich and full of resources.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7n82gd7pvo
We apparently can’t afford to keep our own government open, or staff vital programs, but we can bribe the people of Argentina with $40 BILLION.
It’s a fucking joke.
Thank you for the reference. I would consider this an investment by the government, at that it does not appear to be a bad one at all. Even though I really despise the implications behind it, it is a justified and rational choice.
The US relies on influence on external countries and foreign investments. Do you think the US is rich because of their great manufacturing and exports? I live in Europe and own basically nothing made in the US. Not because I’m against it, there just isn’t anything made in the US to buy. It’s been a long time US products are just software and websites, but most wealth comes from other sources.
I do not like your government, and I despise they cut government spending and social spending. I believe this will cause plenty problems in your country. However, this decision seems completely justified. The US will probably get back way more than those 40 billions, by opening mines and acquiring local industries. I believe your country is quite interested in lithium, that is a good source for it. Together with Bolivia, who has elections today and is already decided to sell off swats of its resources in exchange of some dollars for a year or two of economic stability.
Look man, if you’re in Argentina, I get it. You want that money. It is a lot of money.
But c’mon. Nothing this administration does is justified. Nothing they do is in the interest of American citizens. You need to understand this.
I think you’re both right. The problem in this discussion is that “justified” really depends on perspective. I agree with the other guy it is justified… from Trump’s perspective. I agree with you it is not justified for the American people.
This move seems very much to the benefit of the US and to the detriment of Argentina. Argentinians will pay dearly for this. Now, if you want to close your eyes and act like the US is a third world country nobody cares about go ahead. If you don’t want to see how the US relies on influence in other countries to sustain it’s wealth, that is ok.
America doesnt want Milei for Argentina’s benefit, its for Americas. The only way for Argentinians to improve their lives is to counter imperialism, not hasten it.
That little guy with the hair beside trump was on stage at one of Elon Musk’s “rallies” not too long ago. Something smells like rotten fish here.
Argentina, isn’t that where all the Nazis fled to after the Second World War?
Trump needs a plan b
Hey. Hey.
Y’all remember when he closed USAID for sending too much taxpayer money overseas?
USAID’s budget was fucking $44 billion to work in 130 counties.
Now T is sending that all to one guy. Literally one guy.
In other words, our taxes now pay for health care for Argentinians, not Americans. Despite the fact that they are claiming the current shutdown is because they don’t want our taxes paying for non-Americans getting health care. Make it make sense.
Israel gets free health care too!
Healthcare for Argentina? Milei is destroying public welfare. That’s for other oligarchs. $40B in exchange of… Well, Milei is acting unhinged and won’t explain, but probably lands, water, lithium. Trump bought something, we just don’t know what yet.
It could also be partly to help keep him in power, as Argentina collapsing, again, under libertarianism makes their attempts at libertarianism harder to justify. They’d still lie about it, so I agree there is an ulterior motive, that personally benefits Trump or his cronies.
oh, this is not to pay for health care. it is to sustain the carry trade scam that both the american and argentinan goverment are involved in.
So more like “wealthcare” than healthcare.
I’m appalled I haven’t heard the word wealthcare before.
Apauling
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Totally random, nothing going on here…
Don’t cry for me Argentina, I’m already dead.
this is what election interference looks like
Well they have to flee somewhere when shit hits the fan.
I’m surprised i didn’t think of this but that does sound exactly like what they’re doing.
Or slushing money away through corrupt channels and pocketing it themselves.
Bush Doctrine says we follow them to finish the job this time.
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America first? More like Argentina and Israel first
If it helps, here in Argentina, Mr Milei is all in for Israel first
Can somebody please clarify the actual transaction here? We’re not simply giving Argentina this money. It’s a swap or a loan, right? Who know if/when they’ll pay it back, but I think it should be clarified.
Hell we don’t even know where the money is coming from (our Government is shut down right now, remember?) let alone what form the transfer will take.
It’s a currency swap. Basically, we give them dollars and they give us pesos. Eventually, they could theoretically be swapped back.
Holding dollars is good for them because it shows foreign investors’ confidence in their economy, and allows them to shore up the peso if necessary by using dollars to prop it up through central bank buybacks.
Holding pesos is a high risk for us because the inflation rate has historically been extremely high. $1 US was like 300 pesos five years ago, and it’s more like 1500 today. So if we swap them back down the road, we will probably lose money, since we swapped dollars at $1 = 1500 pesos, but may swap back later at $1 = 2000+ pesos.
In a way it’s like we gave them an interest free loan. Or actually: more like we gave them a loan with a negative interest rate. Because we likely lose money the longer they hold it.
Why would we do this? Because Milei says lots of nice things about the orange man on TV.
No interest paid to US when swapping back?
People are saying there’s some billionaire that Trump is bailing out.
So, I haven’t been getting any answer here myself but in general here’s what has been happening.
Aregentina’s…idk president? Has been cutting their social program funding and regulation for the last year or two. It’s wildly unpopular in his country.
Those cuts in regulation inflated their currency value for a bit but it was temporary.
Now, Aregentina is coming up on an election and the president is at risk of loosing and having his policies reversed.
So this money…it’s not actually going anywhere or for anything specific. It’s a currency swap. We are kind of giving them a loan. Just giving them money.
Because. Again. The Argentinian President cut tons of stuff and artificially inflated his currency with deregulation.
So Trump sending him money is like a bandaid to get him through his election.
He can point to this influx to show that “his policies are working.” They’re not. Argentina has had unstable currency for ages.
He’s stealing from Peter to pay Paul.
But this is complicated money science and I can’t explain in technical terms but that is the jist of it.
I mean, it could work. Javier Milei, The Argentinian President, is trying to get external investors to pump money into he economy so, if nothing else Trump giving him this money signals that he has America’s support.
Argentinia also just had a big win with soybean contracts and China.
But in the short term he’s essentially doubling down using a loan from his American pal.
Thanks for the details but as I understand it it’s swapping US for Argentinian currency that then needs to be paid back? So I guess it’s technically giving money in the sense that Argentinian currency is trash?
Yeah pretty much. See this is where it starts getting into money theory and I’m a few years out of my economics and finance classes.
But much like stocks and bonds currency swap also deals with interest and growth rates. It’s a high-scale ‘loan.’ (But not technically a loan.) Loan-like.
It doesn’t need paid back exactly but if one parties money becomes garbage then it does start to feel like a loan.
We are getting pesos in exchange, but again. The peso is risky. If it grows then you can argue we didn’t loose any money. But we have to hold the pesos to help stabilize it’s value.
Since it’s Trump, I’m guessing it’s buying support. Or Argentina got a copy of that Russian video where Trump is urinating on a child in a hotel room and they decided to blackmail him.
Huh. I guess our tax dollars are going to pay for non citizen’s healthcare.
