US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent lauds Milei at midtown gala as US plans Argentina rescue

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised Argentina’s President Javier Milei Wednesday night at a posh gala in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, saying he has “laid the foundation for a new golden age in Argentina.”

“Tonight we recognise President Javier Milei for his tireless efforts to make Argentina great again,” said Bessent, introducing Milei to receive an award at an Atlantic Council dinner on Wednesday. 

He hailed Milei’s “visionary leadership,” saying the Argentine leader “recognised government is not the solution, it is the problem.”

The black-tie gala was full of New York City pomp. French President Emmanuel Macron and Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, were also honoured – Macron was set to be introduced by BlackRock Inc CEO Larry Fink, while Infantino was introduced by seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.

Yet while the event was weeks to months in the making, it came to pass as the Trump administration races to backstop Milei’s Argentina as the nation seeks to prevent a financial crisis.

Bessent, who introduced Milei to a crowd of corporate sponsors and political officials gathered at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in midtown Manhattan, made his name in part by helping billionaire George Soros bet against the British pound in 1992. That experience gives him a particular insight now that he and his current boss, President Donald Trump, find themselves on the opposite side of another confidence trade.

With Argentina, Bessent is trying to support a currency under threat. In so doing, he’s effectively moving to prop up one of Trump’s closest allies on the world stage in a region where China has been making inroads with other nations, including neighbouring Brazil. 

“Many of you may have heard that I am the world’s biggest bond salesman. And in the past few days, I’ve been doing it for two countries,” Bessent said. 

Milei, for his part, was unbowed by the current financial situation. 

“We’re on the right track,” he told attendees, speaking in Spanish, vowing that he had needed to “do what’s right rather than what’s comfortable and easy,” while conceding that his political opponents were seeking to exploit a temporary vulnerability before Argentina would, in his telling, turn an economic corner for good. 

The Treasury secretary earlier Wednesday said the US plans to extend a US$20-billion swap line to Argentina and stands ready to buy the country’s foreign bonds. That provided much-needed financial support to Milei as he tries to regain investor confidence and stem a run on his nation’s currency.

The chief US financial official said in his social media post that terms of the deal are still being negotiated. He made clear in an interview on Fox News that the financing was meant to help Milei ahead of next month’s crucial midterm elections.

Milei, a free-market reformer, has faced increasing financial pressure in the weeks since his party lost a key provincial election by a landslide, a bad sign just a month ahead of the nationwide congressional vote. The defeat spurred investors to pull their money out of Argentina, fearful Milei is losing the support he needs to sustain his business-friendly reform agenda, tame inflation and stabilise a currency that’s been ravaged by crisis, again and again, over multiple decades.

Bessent’s overture also marks an extraordinary turnabout for a US president who was elected on a promise to limit US military and financial interventions overseas in favour of focusing on domestic concerns. Since taking office, Trump has slashed billions in foreign aid. 

But when it came to Argentina, and Milei, Trump was ready to help.

In Milei, the White House has its staunchest conservative ally in a region dominated by leftist leaders. Milei’s sweeping cuts to the Argentine bureaucratic state were cited as a model for Trump’s own scything of the US federal service. 

And in Trump and Bessent, Milei has found a pair of financial backers from the world’s largest economy, ready to intervene in order to stave off a collapse of his nation’s currency caused by doubts about Milei’s own economic plans. And all of that comes just ahead of key midterm elections next month in Argentina, as polls show the more liberal opposition gaining support.

Trump has stoked conflict with leftists in Latin America, slapping tariffs on Brazil, whose President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is an elder statesman in the region. He’s also hit Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s nation with duties, repeatedly clashed with Colombia’s Gustavo Petro and ordered strikes on boats belonging to alleged drug-traffickers in the Caribbean as a warning to Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

By contrast, Milei has carved out a friendly path with Trump, making multiple trips to the US, including for Trump’s inauguration in January. Bessent also made Argentina one of his first trips as Treasury Secretary in April to show support for Milei’s economic programme, days after the nation won a new loan from the International Monetary Fund.