Javier Milei, the new president of Argentina, wants to “Make Argentina great again.”
The appropriation of Donald Trump’s slogan by those who sympathize with the 53-year-old right-wing firebrand is far from the only similarity between the two politicians. Milei, a former television personality, will lead his country’s Executive Branch with the lack of familiarity typical of Trump and those who are new to politics. At the same time, she will pursue a conservative agenda that might as well have been designed by Vivek Ramaswamy himself, rather than the 45th.either president of the USA
He will try to implement massive cuts in the federal government, including the total elimination of some institutions like the Central Bank, and will wage the global culture war from the presidency. He could even try to reverse the new national law legalizing abortion.
However, the greatest similarity with Trump is his anger with his country’s “political caste.”
While other politicians in the US play to provoke the same anger in their bases, Donald Trump remains the defender and standard bearer of Americans who, above all else, have a raging hatred against individual leaders and families elite who have held positions of power in Washington for decades. That anger was what brought allies like Roger Stone and Steve Bannon to his side, and it’s the same anger that Milei depends on.
This is also evident when he denounces that his native country is becoming a “slum.”
“A lot of people don’t like my ways, but this election is not about me. “It’s about you and the country we want,” he told his supporters at a campaign event in August. “If we do not change today, the only possible destiny is that we become the largest slum in the world.”
Javier Milei, president-elect of Argentina, thanks his supporters on Sunday
(Getty Images)
In another event the same month, he added: “A different Argentina is impossible with the same people as always, with the same people who have been failing for more than a hundred years.”
The backdrop is different, but the message is the same: the political establishment, according to Trump and Milei, is content to get rich while their respective nations sink.
Another aspect that perhaps both right-wing politicians share is the rise to power in times of economic crisis.
Milei’s victory on Sunday came as Argentina experiences one of the highest levels of inflation in years. Poverty has reached its maximum throughout the country and salaries are surpassed by the increase in consumer prices. Earlier this year, members of the Government intervened to devalue the national currency, and a second devaluation is possible at the end of the year.
Although the US election is still a year away, these are stark warnings for President Joe Biden, who will likely face Trump once again in 2024. Despite the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, price levels in the US have remained discouragingly high in many areas, a factor that has hurt Biden’s poll numbers for months.
If Trump becomes president next year, it could be the result of the electorate looking for an economic lifeline.
Finally, there is the question of victory; or rather, the feeling that reality sets in after a prolonged presidential campaign comes to fruition.
Just as Donald Trump did throughout 2016 and 2017, Milei is backtracking on certain proposals that simply are not viable. According to the Associated Press, while announcing his victory on Sunday, the controversial candidate gave up on his plans to privatize Argentina’s educational system and relax gun laws.
His election victory was, in many ways, ripped straight from Trump’s playbook. What remains to be seen now is whether the intrepid young Argentine leader will chart his own course, whether that means leading his country out of economic decline and instability; or take him down a path plagued by political enmities, conspiracies, revenge and infighting.
Translation of Noelia Hubert
