Why We Should Be Paying Attention to Argentina

A cautionary tale has been unfolding in Argentina for over a year

Photo by Angelica Reyes on Unsplash

After Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina in December 2023, he began implementing broad austerity measures identical to what Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are currently doing to the U.S. Milei even believes he is the inspiration for President Donald Trump and Musk to do what they’re doing. While that is possible, it seems like Milei took some pages from Project 2025 and applied them in Argentina.

The similarities between the two countries are uncanny.

One theme Argentina shares with the United States is marginalized groups voting for Milei and later regretting it. Also, like billionaires supporting Trump in the U.S., the wealthiest Argentinians praise Milei for his efforts to lead a so far limited economic recovery. Meanwhile, most of the country is against his social policies. In yet another similarity, Milei launched a war against “woke” attacking feminism, social programs, climate change, immigration, and identity politics.

Bigotry

Milei has frequently targeted the LGBTQ community. In February, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he said gender ideology was child abuse and referred to gay and trans people as pedophiles, sparking national protests across Argentina. Before Milei and despite its history of anti-Black and anti-Inidigneous racism, Argentina was considered a progressive society by much of the world.

Women suffering from gender-based violence were also left without support after Milei shuttered the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and is currently moving to remove femicide from the penal code. He’s cutting funding for historical memory initiatives overseeing trials for crimes against humanity committed during Argentina’s military dictatorship and in December, he repealed a law protecting Indigenous communities.

It seems Milei intends to return to the days of hate and bigotry with wildly unpopular moves.

Impacts

Milei’s bigotry can often overshadow the nearly 53% poverty rate in Argentina that grew out of control because of his policies. His cost-cutting and shuttering of myriad agencies may have curbed government spending but it came at great cost. Seventy percent of children live in poverty and over one million kids go to bed hungry every night. Over six million Argentinians live in extreme poverty. When people celebrate his economic reforms, think of it in this context.

This is where the United States is likely headed. However, the impacts of the cuts to agencies in the U.S. are much greater. Coupled with people who don’t know how the government or the U.S. Constitution works having access to shut down complex systems can only make matters worse. Badly worded broad executive orders granting unheard-of powers to high-ranking government officials and billionaire civilians alike are scary and likely illegal.

Free Rein

This puts the U.S. in a more profound and untenable position than Argentina. So far, three separate courts have refused to stop Musk from accessing critical and sensitive data, secure systems, and classified information. One judge in New York temporarily blocked DOGE’s access to sensitive taxpayer personal data such as Social Security and bank account numbers at the Treasury Department. In other words, nothing so far is stopping them.

None of the judges have weighed in on the constitutionality of the administration taking control of monies Congress has appropriated. The last time something like this occurred was under Richard Nixon when he exercised what is called, “impoundment” after refusing to fund certain programs approved by Congress. However, a year later, Congress passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act (ICA) of 1974 requiring the president to inform Congress anytime he impounds funds as a deferment or a recission of spending.

Opposition

Many Democrats have spoken out against Trump’s actions citing that the Constitution prohibits the impoundment of funds and that the ICA further clarifies this. In a January letter from Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, they argued that Trump has “no inherent Presidential power in the Constitution to impound” appropriated funds. Ranking member Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-CT) reiterated the point in a statement on January 21, 2025.

“The President spent his first day in office stealing from American taxpayers,” said De Lauro. “In at least three of his Day 1 Executive Orders the President decided to flout the law, and the Constitution, by illegally impounding—unilaterally stealing—critical investments that had been enacted into law.”

Not only are the courts seemingly siding with Trump in many cases, but the same happened with Milei in Argentina. Any efforts to stop him were largely shut down providing some insight into how Trump and Musk could act. Between the plans laid out in Project 2025 and taking notes from Milei, it seems that his biggest supporters (Musk, Vivek, and Trump) are following his strategy despite the number of people left to suffer because of such policies.

Crypto Scams

Similarly, after Trump launched a cryptocurrency known as a meme coin raking in millions of dollars while 200,000 smaller investors lost money, Milei recently did the same thing. Milei, however, is receiving much more backlash than Trump received for ripping poor people off. On February 14, Milei took to Instagram to promote a cryptocurrency called $LIBRA. He promoted it as “encouraging economic growth by funding small businesses and startups.”

His promising message made people jump at the chance to be part of Argentina’s economic story. Many big-money crypto investors invested in it along with thousands of poor Argentinians who saw it as a potential way out of poverty. But within a few hours, Milei deleted his social media posts after some speculated that it could be a scam. This prompted widespread fears of crashing after boasting more than a $4 billion market cap leading to a massive sell-off.

The collapse cost new investors millions of dollars in losses. Now, Milei is facing lawsuits, a fraud probe, and calls for his impeachment. A local non-governmental association (NGO) that filed a suit against Milei says that he caused thousands of people to lose their life savings in what is often referred to as a “rug pull” in the crypto world. His lack of popularity will only take an even bigger hit because of the most recent events and his recent comments.

Conclusion

While the differences between the U.S. and Argentina are broad, it’s impossible to ignore the myriad similarities in what’s happening in both governments. Trump and Milei are leading with bigotry first, thus casting a shadow on many of their actions. They’re governing in undemocratic ways, slashing funding, closing needed institutions, operating against the law, and ripping people off with various scams such as meme coins and fundraisers.

Trump’s attacks on education, infrastructure, healthcare, and social programs mimic Milei’s targeting of Argentina’s version of those institutions. We should indeed be paying attention.

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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.