Why Trump Loves Argentina and El Salvador

Two countries with leaders Donald Trump is emulating

Photo by Ye Jinghan on Unsplash

There has been a tremendous amount of seemingly nonsensical news lately. It’s part of the Steve Bannon “flooding the zone” strategy of feeding the news media bullshit to keep ther heads spinning. It also exhausts people into silence and shifts societal thinking closer to their beliefs, making their jobs easier. And just like the last time Donald Trump was elected, we’re seeing the absurd, like trying to rename the Gulf of Mexico, actually happen.

The news cycle around the Trump White House is so outlandish that it’s next to impossible to know if they’re being serious. Annex Canada and Greenland? Yeah, as stupid as it sounds, he’s milking that one. Here’s the thing: as pointless as things like trying to rename the Gulf of Mexico are, his base loves it despite his reneging on “fixing” the economy, among many other things.

And yet, here we are once again with Trump, a wannabe dictator, as president of the United States. This time, however, he has an over 900-page plan, and Trump is seemingly letting those around him effortlessly implement it. So much so that he claimed to have never signed the Alien Enemies Act and instead pointed to how good of a job Secretary of State Marco Rubio is doing.

Now, there are questions about who is running the White House. Is Trump just a frontman? A messenger? A puppet? Is he all the things they claimed about Biden? Seems like it, doesn’t it?

Let’s face it. As lawmakers get older, yes, even presidents, they rely more on their staff to get their jobs done. For a president like Trump, that staff is his cabinet. For example, we all know how much of an influence someone like Trump’s homeland security advisor and White House deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, is. He’s been lingering around Trump for nearly a decade, and his Klan-like, white nationalist beliefs are well known.

Miller influenced decisions and drafted many policy ideas based on Trump’s trust. Once-fringe ideas, like mass deportations, became a reality because Miller exploited that trust. Trump lets him run with crazy ideas, and here we are. Whether Trump is in control is irrelevant because there’s a pattern being followed, and it's emulating the ethno-nationalist authoritarian movement across Europe and a growing trend in the United States.

It’s become clear that Trump is being molded into a more populist far-right figure following the paths of leaders like Argentinian President Javier Milei and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Turkish President Recep Erdoğan. Trump’s attacks on the judiciary, oversight, the Constitution, and law enforcement are just the tip of the iceberg.

While much has been said about Trump wishing he was more like Putin or other world leaders, let’s talk about two world leaders no one ever compares Trump to but absolutely should. It’s these two that are inspiring Trump more than any other leaders, and for good reason. Both have skirted their countries' laws to enact unpopular policies and consolidate power. Precisely what Trump wants to do, and he’s taking his cues from them.

Javier Milei, President of Argentina

A self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist, the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, has garnered much media attention after his drastic cuts to the Argentinian government. His strategy is similar to Trump’s in that he immediately moved to gut social programs and sequester funding for many institutions. Miliei has eliminated Argentina’s Ministry of Education, Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity, and the Ministry of Social Development, among other institutions.

Milei promised to address Argentina’s economic issues with quick and massive reductions in government spending in what he called economic “shock therapy.” During his campaign, Milei pledged to balance Argentina’s economy within three months. Over a year later, the economy occasionally sees small bumps in terms of recovery, but seniors have had their pensions cut and poverty ballooned above 50% in Argentina.

Like Trump, Milei has run a campaign against news media critical of his administration and has participated in dismantling media freedoms. According to the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA), at least 52 cases of stigmatizing rhetoric, ranging from verbal attacks and intimidation to harassment in public spaces and online, were recorded in 2024 alone. Milei has also weaponized the legislative process to target freedom of the press.

In 2023, Milei issued a mega-decree that modified or repealed 366 laws regulating broad economic activities in Argentina. The emergency decree is only meant for specific and emergency purposes, yet, Milei added 64 new laws to his – a strategy to flood the courts with litigation and hope as much of his agenda as possible would stick. The mega-decree was inevitably reduced to about 60 executive orders instead of the initial 366.

Milei’s political leanings and his professed Christian (Catholic) Zionism put him in line with what we would call a white Christian nationalist in the U.S., putting him in a position to blend in with the dozens of people in Trump’s cabinet with similar beliefs. Indeed, Trump and Milei complement each other well. From dismantling the government to cutting social programs, leaving the poor, sick, and elderly to fend for themselves, Milei’s policies parallel those found in Project 2025, now Trump’s America First policy agenda. It’s no wonder Elon Musk loves him.

Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador

Despite the seemingly broad connections to Milei, the Trump administration favors Nayiob Bukele above most other authoritarian world leaders. Bukele has successfully ignored many of the laws in El Salvador’s Constitution and is doing essentially what he wants with little to no pushback.

With his party now in control of every branch of government, it becomes clear that the path the U.S. is following mimics Bukele’s path. The country, now in its second year of martial law, has seen civil liberties ignored, leading to the imprisonment of more than 1% of El Salvador’s entire population. Journalists, activists, and innocent civilians have all been swept up under Bukele.

If you’re wondering where Trump got the idea to run for a third term despite the Constitution explicitly preventing that, he got it from Bukele. El Salvador’s president is currently serving his second term even though El Salvador’s Constitution explicitly prohibits Buklele from running for reelection. But because his party controls every branch of government, he ignored the law and ran anyway. His party willingly allowed him to run and did nothing to stop him.

Now, Bukele is already talking about running for a third term after eliminating many legislative representative positions and weakening opposition to his administration. Immediately after his first election, Bukele led a legislative effort to remove five Supreme Court justices and the country’s Attorney General and replaced them with people friendly to his administration.

His expanded powers allow Bukele to undermine judicial oversight and allow the government to enact policies without fear of repercussions. With a weaker judiciary and legislative body, Bukele has successfully undermined El Salvador’s checks and balances and undercut the nation’s safeguards. This is precisely what Trump seeks to do, making Bukele one of the bigger names to watch as the Trump administration imitates what he has done in El Salvador.

Many of Trump’s ideas come from Bukele.

Conclusion

There are many world leaders we can all point to and suggest that’s who Trump wants to be like and the type of power he would like to wield. But when we’re talking about countries whose democracies are more like that of the United States than Eastern Europe or Asia, that’s when we should start paying attention. It may not seem like Trump can do what Putin or Viktor Orban has done because of the differing political systems, but he can do what Milei and Bukele have done within our system because they are identical.

What the Trump administration sees in Argentina and El Salvador are two situations that can become the norm in the United States. What they say are the solutions to everything they think ails the country, and they’re implementing it in the same ways as Bukele and Milei by targeting people for their speech and using dubious evidence like tattoos to justify disappearing them.

To fight back, one must know the enemy's strategy.

---

I’m an independent journalist. Find my work at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, and more. I’m also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work, become a paid subscriber or donate via Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp.