He did not end the “seven wars” that he claims to have ended. Nor is it achieving the successes it claims to have with its tariffs. He even exhibits moral and anti-institutional turpitude by erasing what was agreed with Prime Minister Mark Carney, because he was outraged by the video, broadcast in Canada, in which Ronald Reagan considers it an immense mistake to impose tariffs, explaining that this form of protectionism is beneficial in the immediate but negative in the medium and long term. Like the sulky child who takes the ball because they don’t give him passes, Trump made a mess and threw into the basket what was already agreed upon with the Canadian leader.
But when it comes to marking milestones, Donald Trump did it again. This time, the milestone is having won an election in another country. In the victory of the ultra-conservative ruling party that governs Argentina, none of the government’s protagonists were decisive.
In any case, the mediocrities and negligence of the opposition had more influence. Kicillof splitting the election and spending all the money and equipment of the mayors in the local vote in September, Cristina proving once again not to be the “genius strategist” that her propagandists describe, by putting Jorge Taiana, the author of the famous nonsense “in Venezuela there is not a dictatorship but a democracy with flaws” as the head of the list. And the governors, as they have always done, spoil the stage for new figures who show intelligence, knowledge and decency.
But the most determining factor in the result was Trump. The Argentine government’s success was to run to ask for life preservers in its latest shipwrecks. Shout “help” loud enough to be heard from Washington, where the New York tycoon, with his eyes on the South American board in which he disputes influence with China box by box, understood the opportunity that this succession of shipwrecks gave him. Then he became fully involved in the Argentine electoral process, because although Milei and his team will say yes to everything he asks of them, if the opposition bench grew in Congress, it would be more difficult for him to remove the Chinese chip from that South American box to put his own.
His first winning move was to put out the growing financial fire with a torrential rain of dollars. By simply showing that he had the tap of the North American Treasury in his hand, the fire in which the Argentine reserves were burning began to subside.
Does anyone believe that, if the financial collapse that was about to occur had occurred, the ruling party would have won the legislative election? Surely, many say they believe it, or want to believe it, but it is difficult to truly believe it.
The goals that gave Javier Milei the victory on the hour mark were scored by Trump. The whole world saw it. He also heard the head of the White House say two phrases of surgical precision to avert a defeat for the local ultra-conservative government: “Argentina is dying” and “if Milei loses we will withdraw.” In other words, Argentines, forget about our dollars.
A businessman at last, the North American president understands the anguish of that ocean of people who were moving towards a “black Monday.” October 26 would be an abyss for thousands and thousands of small, medium and large businesses if the votes left Milei groggy mid-term. Although he never experienced it, Trump knows the vertigo and anguish that it causes in small, medium and large merchants, as well as in the owners of small, medium and large businesses, when prices disappear in a financial quake.
In that ocean of Argentines who live from commerce and business activities of different types, it does not matter who drives the rescue boat, but rather being rescued. The sixties and seventies slogans sound absurd at this point of economic uncertainty. To avoid another financial collapse, the majority even agrees to go from “Yankees go home” to “Yankees come here.” And it is logical that this is the case.
Faced with the imminence of a “Black Monday”, with the immense load of uncertainty, even anguish, that this implies, Trump was the one who averted defeat when, after the massive economic bailout that he had announced two weeks before, he said that “Argentina was dying” and that “if Milei loses, we will leave”, that is to say “Argentines, there will be no money”.
Having reversed a result that looked like a right-wing defeat, positioning itself on the South American geopolitical board to take on China’s chip in the Argentine locker, is one more trophy on Trump’s shelf. But it doesn’t help you much in the face of internal criticism.
The money taken from the taxes paid by Americans to save Milei from defeat was one of the most questioned Trump decisions in the United States. Videos circulated with Milei dancing, or jumping euphorically on stage, or babbling unconnected things, with captions indicating that the head of the White House gives this grotesque character the money he did not use to avoid the shutdown (government shutdown) to improve the health system and to avoid the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by his cuts to international food aid programs.
The massive rescue of Milei came to be as questioned by Democrats, centrist Republicans and citizens without political affiliation as the bulldozer that destroyed the historic East Wing of the White House.
It is heresy to alter the appearance of the historic building on Pennsylvania Avenue in the 1600s, whose neoclassical elegance delighted George Washington when choosing among the models presented by architects of the time.
Theodore Roosevelt had the East Wing built at the turn of the 20th century. Each touch-up involved lengthy discussions and consultations. Without having consulted more than with Melania (in the best of cases), Trump demolished it with bulldozers to build a gigantic ballroom.
That and the cruel hunts for immigrants were the most questioned by the North Americans, until they found out the cost it would have for their pockets to remove China’s Argentine spot on the South American geopolitical board.
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