Why Trump adores Argentina’s Milei, loathes ‘Communist’ Mamdani

President Trump adores Argentina President Javier Milei but loathes New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

The reason: the rise of socialism.

After signing a peace deal to end the war in Gaza, Trump returned his attention to the Western Hemisphere and constructing bulwarks against the rise of that ideology in both North and South America. His $20 billion bailout of Argentina threw a lifeline to the Milei regime and its pro-capitalist policies.

“It’s really meant to help a good financial philosophy,” Trump told RealClearPolitics ahead of a lunch meeting with the Milei administration. “We can help our neighbors,” he added. And the help is much needed. Before the U.S. intervention, the value of the Argentine peso was plummeting, raising fears of an economic crisis in that country and impelling reform.

With Trump’s help, Milei said Argentina could avoid backsliding into “the failed policies” of the past and the “roads that lead to socialism.”

A libertarian economics professor turned politician, Milei has shaken up Argentina with DOGE-style reforms and, at times explicitly, modeling his austerity on the example offered by Elon Musk. His goal is a free market economy on the southern continent. A resurgent Peronist movement, an ideology tied to Juan Domingo Perón’s legacy of social welfare, now threatens to hinder his initial momentum.

Hence the keen interest the Trump administration has taken in Milei and the legislative elections coming in Argentina next month.

“We’ve been criticized by a couple of American Peronists, like Senator Warren,” Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent said while defending his bailout of the peso, condemning the Massachusetts Democrat’s “protege in New York,” democratic-socialist Zohran Mamdani, as “a communist.”

The favorite to win the New York mayoral race, Mamdani is a darling of the progressive left. His promises are sweeping. From steep new taxes for the rich in that city to government-run grocery stores, he represents a leftist movement that the Trump administration sees as an anathema.

The New York election is next month. Re-election for Milei isn’t for another two years. Either way, in North and South America, the response from Trump will be the same if his preferred ideology does not win out at the polls.

“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” Trump said of Milei. Though the president rejected the idea that the $20 billion was meant to sway the election when pressed by RCP, he later said explicitly that “if he doesn’t win, we’re gone.”

Trump intends to move more swiftly if Mamdani wins as expected. “Funding for New York and for every place comes through the White House,” he mused as he described himself as “very generous” with the allocation of taxpayer dollars, “but I wouldn’t be generous to a communist, the guy that’s going to take the money and throw it out the window.”

He likened it to “a little bit like” the situation in Argentina.

Asked about dollarization of the Argentinian economy, an idea some on the American right support and Milei once campaigned on, Trump deferred to “my economic people” but told RCP “I like the dollar” and “anybody who wants to deal in dollars, they have an advantage.” Bessent was less circumspect, telling RCP that “we’re happy with the current currency arrangement.”

The White House may have more influence over elections in Argentina than in New York. After Mayor Eric Adams withdrew from that race, Mamdani has maintained his lead, and his campaign may be just a harbinger of politics to come.

Without a national leader, the American left remains in the wilderness of late. Mamdani vows that his movement will not end at the banks of the Hudson River. At a Manhattan rally, the candidate pledged to advance a “movement that won the battle over the soul of the Democratic Party” and would soon win over the entire party.

In these two battles between capitalism and socialism, Trump may have more influence in South America. “Your poll numbers are pretty good,” he told Milei. “But I think they’ll be better after this,” he said of the $20 billion bailout.