Administration that is starving children all over the world for trivial savings to bail out Trump’s inept friend

Do cry to Trump, Argentina:

In its dealings with other countries, Donald Trump’s administration is following a clear agenda of undermining liberal values, fomenting discord and withdrawing critical financial support. One of the administration’s first acts was to drastically cut funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, then shut the agency down completely. Independent estimates suggest that these cuts have already led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, many of them children, and will lead to millions more deaths in the years ahead. It is trying to shutter Voice of America, a federally-sponsored news agency founded to fight the Nazis and promulgate democratic values throughout the world. The administration has vocally supported extreme right-wing parties like the AfD in Germany. He has withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement environmental accords and the World Health Organization. He has severely reduced aid to Ukraine, a democracy struggling to survive conquest by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

So it might have seemed out of character when Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, suddenly announced on Monday that the United States is prepared to offer open-ended financial support to Argentina:

[…]

Argentina, in contrast, is not systemically important to the United States. Argentina is a miniscule player in terms of US interests. The U.S. accounts for only about 1/8^th of Argentina’s imports, less than its imports from the European Union and much less than its imports from China.

It’s definitely a lot less important, both strategically and economically, than Brazil, whose economy is more than three times as big as Argentina’s. Yet Trump has completely alienated Brazil, imposing 50 percent tariffs on the nation for daring to try and convict a former president who attempted to overturn his electoral defeat. Always indulging his personal grudges, Trump has imposed sanctions on the judge who oversaw Jair Bolsonaro’s prosecution — and on his wife. It obviously doesn’t matter to him that both the tariffs against Brazil and the personal sanctions are surely illegal. Trump’s behavior has had a devastating effect on America’s interests, driving Brazil into China’s arms.

So why would he do this? Milei shares Trump’s commitment to upward wealth distribution:

But remember that, in Trump’s world, America’s interests don’t count. Only his interests count. And Javier Milei, Argentina’s president, has been an important poster child for right-wing economics. The early success — or apparent success — of his policies was widely celebrated as a great victory. In February, Milei and Elon Musk shared the stage, wielding a chainshaw, during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC.) And Milei has deftly played the part of the Trump acolyte, praising Trump’s tariffs and deportations at the UN, while attacking “left-wing infiltration” of American institutions.

But the victory celebrations were premature: Mileinomics is now in big trouble. So Bessent is offering large-scale aid — not to defend U.S. interests, but in an attempt to rescue the reputation of Trump’s preferred ideology and cult of fealty.

If reporters and pundits wanted to stop calling Trump an “economic populist,” well better to stop lying to your readers late than never.