Milei, Musk, and Maga: Does Argentina have an impact on the United States?
Javier Milei, the unconventional libertarian president of Argentina, is one year into his term in office. A nd while his attempts to boost the country’s economy are still ongoing. His policies are already having an impact in the United States.
After years of living over its means, Milei came to office determined to reduce public spending.
According to a survey conducted earlier this month by the CB Consultora organization. He still has the support of slightly more than half of the populace despite. His strict austerity measures and a persistent increase in poverty rates.
That is comparable to Donald Trump’s current level of popularity. Trump has praised Milei, Musk, and Maga as a man who can make Argentina great again. And nearly half of US voters supported the president-elect in last month’s presidential election.
Elon Musk, a tech entrepreneur who is expected to be a major player in the next US government. Has also lauded Milei, claiming that Argentina is “experiencing a massive improvement” under his direction.
However, what qualities do Musk and Trump find appealing in Milei, Musk, and Maga? And are their ideologies as similar as is frequently thought?
Milei’s ability to reduce inflation is his greatest accomplishment to date and the one that Argentineans value the most. However, his push for deregulation has created a stir in the US. Where small-government activists eager to reduce the size of the state in Washington are emulating the situation in Buenos Aires.
Milei’s first set of policies included halving the number of government ministries and cutting fuel subsidies from the state.
He is currently attempting to ram through plans for a huge sale of state-owned businesses. Including Aerolineas Argentinas, the nation’s premier airline, which was renationalized in 2008 after having already been privatized once.
All of this is good news for Elon Musk. Who is being given comparable cost-cutting tasks to carry out under the guise of the agency of Government Efficiency. Which is an advising organization rather than an official government agency.
According to Musk and fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy. Who co-leads the department, they intend to cut federal rules, supervise widespread layoffs, and close some departments completely.
Musk has proposed reducing federal expenditures by $2 trillion (£1.6 trillion), or roughly one-third of yearly spending. He claims that Milei is “deleting entire departments” in Argentina, and with Trump’s approval. He would like to do the same in the US.
However, seasoned observers of Latin America are skeptical.
“Taking inspiration from Milei to shrink the size of government does not make any sense. According to Monica de Bolle, senior scholar at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
Because it involved the removal of decades of poor public resource management, the situation in Argentina is extremely unique. The United States is unrelated to that.
According to Ms. de Bolle, Argentina was “bursting into crisis every few years”. Due to government overspending, therefore the country was forced to respond.
“That is suitable for Argentina, but not for anyone else.”
Milei’s use of a chainsaw on the campaign trail as a symbol of his approach to governance was a “masterpiece” of political marketing that “captured the imagination of small-state activists across the globe,” according to Marcelo J. García, director for the Americas at the international consulting firm Horizon Engage, based in Buenos Aires.
However, he contends that Trump may not necessarily want less government regulation, even though it would promote Musk’s own commercial interests.
He told the BBC, “I do not know that the Trump platform is compatible with a Milei-type chainsaw small government.”
He notes that several of Trump’s policies, including the construction of border walls and the mass deportations of illegal immigrants, “demand big government.” “Small government cannot implement such large-scale programs.”
According to Milei, government should not be involved in infrastructure projects; instead, the private sector should handle them.
Trump and Milei are opposing what they perceive to be the “woke agenda” and are on the same side in the global culture warfare. But they have quite different views on economics.
Argentina is a member of the Mercosur trading bloc, which also includes Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and Milei is an ardent supporter of free trade.
Although he supports Mercosur’s recent free-trade agreement with the EU, he objects to the organization’s insistence on preventing its individual member nations from negotiating their own agreements. He claims that Mercosur “has ended up being a prison” as a result.
At the Mercosur meeting in Uruguay earlier this month, where the agreement with the EU was inked, he said, “What is the point of the bloc if it is not a dynamic engine that facilitates commerce, boosts investment, and improves the quality of life of all the residents of our region?”
Though for different reasons as Milei’s, Trump too holds a grudge against his own regional trade alliance, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
In an effort to preserve American industry and employment, Trump seeks to renegotiate the USMCA, an agreement he drafted during his first term in office.
By threatening to put a 25% tariff on goods from both Canada and Mexico until they safeguard their shared borders with the US, he has even managed to weaponize the alliance.
Monica de Bolle does not think Trump is as excited about a smaller state as Musk is: “You cannot care about the size of government and be a populist nationalist. Trump is indifferent, then. Elon was placed there because he thought it would be entertaining to have someone making noise.
Both in the US and Argentina, the economic argument is expected to go on and on. In the end, though, if half of your people support you, the other half do not. After his inauguration on January 20, Trump will have to deal with it, but Milei is already dealing with his own divisive populace.
According to Marcelo J. García, Milei is a “divisive leader” who has not tried to appease his detractors.
No matter how well the economy fares, he claims that “the other half of the country that did not support him will arguably never support him, because he does not want them to support him.”
“It is common for leaders to want to win over everyone. “With Milei, it is not the case,” he continues.
As he puts it, “You do not construct a long-term sustainable political enterprise if you do not move towards the people who did not vote for you.” This is a serious shortcoming, in his opinion.
Argentina’s midterm elections in October 2025 will be Milei’s next significant public opinion test.
That could be important in determining if his small-government revolution impacts the future of the nation or if it fails like other reform initiatives.
