Peering over the musings of “Enfant Terrible” on the X social media platform formerly known as Twitter, it’s difficult not to imagine President Javier Milei nodding and agreeing. A tweet from before he was supposedly unmasked read: “Argentina’s democracy is an empty shell whose only function is to prevent the changes needed to push the country forward … the system needs changes that cannot be executed by following the system’s own rules. The only way to move forward in the right direction is to bend the law, something the gorilla doesn’t understand. They believe that politics begins and ends with its mannerisms.”
The account, which we now know has been attributed to high-flying political advisor Santiago Caputo, also tweeted: “I don’t see the problem with saying that we want the sum of power in order to transform this embattled nation into the Rome of the XXI century,” adding: “During the Roman Republic’s times of crisis it was common for the sum of public power to be granted to an individual in order to fix the disasters caused by senators, more concerned with appropriating lands and banging chicks [sic] than governing.”
The account bio for this account reads, “Political Commissar of the Regime,” as Caputo has been dubbed in some reports given his growing influence within Milei’s inner circle — which also includes sister Karina and Cabinet Chief Nicolás Posse — and his predilection for copying the tattoos of Russian prisoners.
Caputo, who has been referred to as the “architect” of Milei’s unexpected electoral win by the president, is considered to be the brains behind the communications strategy of the La Libertad Avanza party, particularly on social media where it is extremely successful. He’s also managed to build an interestingly secretive digital persona – pictures of the young political advisor walking into the Casa Rosada wearing dark sunglasses and smoking cigarettes have led to comparisons with characters from the British crime drama, Peaky Blinders. In a country obsessed with “dark priests” that roam Government House with differing levels of influence on the upper echelons of the political class, Caputo has walked into the role perfectly.
He’s seen as the one tasked with constructing and upholding the epic narrative that has become the backdrop of the Milei administration’s modern communications strategy, which is the cornerstone of its “synthetic power,” as explained in previous columns. The rumour mill now indicates he runs an army of digital trolls and bots that are used to unleash damaging attacks on his political enemies, including this very publishing house last weekend. While reports that “dark funds” from the AFI intelligence services are used to finance its operations remain unconfirmed, the potency of La Libertad Avanza’s digital supporters is a force to be reckoned with.
While this epic battle between good and evil is by no means new, Milei and his right-wing supporters operate under a different paradigm. Former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner built on an epic narrative of recovering the “grandeur” of the 1970s revolutionary youth, while both fellow ex-head of states Mauricio Macri and Alberto Fernández lacked any sort of unifying myth that served as the cultural glue, keeping its support base together, relying more on pragmatism.
According to political strategist Mario Riorda, the Milei administration’s communications strategy is “unmeasured, electoralist, aimed at crushing consensus while aggressively blurting out its own conception of grandeur,” an approach he defines as brutalist referring to the late 1950s architectural style. In a recent essay published in Anfibia magazine, Riorda defines five major concepts behind the construction of this government’s political strategy: the total “electoralisation” of government communications, absolute rejection for the state, lack of civility and rudeness, constant shock therapy, and the turbo-charged personification of the leader in every message.
Following in the footsteps of Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro and Nahib Bukele, Milei has built a “mirror government” by which every act of communication is successful if it generates self-satisfaction within the tribe, or core followers. While traditional politicians seek to convince others in order to push forward with a plan, these types of leaders only care about building loyalty within their own fan base. In Milei’s specific case, his strategy – which Riorda believes to be meticulously planned and not at all improvised – rests on the constant generation of conflict with everything and everyone.
In the traditional realm, this level of aggression towards anyone and everyone who does not conform, particularly within the political class and the media ecosystem, would quickly erode the leader’s image, along with his capacity to reach governing agreements with other actors. In Milei’s case, public opinion polls suggest his positive image remains high, above 50 percent in some studies. Yet, his negative image has also been rising, and according to Riorda at best he has a neutral if not negative differential.
The issue of Milei’s capacity to build governability was a conversation starter even before he took the presidency. Whether it was mental stability, a lack of regional and congressional support, or unwillingness to negotiate, the question about whether there could be a systemic risk behind electing Milei led his detractors to suggest March or April could be a tipping point which could see him ejected from the government amid social unrest. That has clearly not occurred, giving the Milei administration breathing room as the economic situation goes from bad to worse.
Yet, even mentioning the scenario sparked massive outrage from the president and his followers, as happened to Perfil last weekend when a column in the paper penned by Jorge Fontevecchia on Saturday suggested the possibility of Miguel Ángel Pichetto taking office in a hypothetical scenario in which Milei had been forced to resign or suffered impeachment. Milei took to X to accuse this company of taking a “destabilising” position suggesting financial weakness, given his government’s decision to cut official advertising to zero while delaying payments on previous invoices.
There should be little doubts that the president is throwing his weight around to discipline the press through financial pressure, a tactic that appears to be working quite well. Official sources confirmed to Perfil that certain outlets and journalists received payments for previous debts, many of them extremely friendly with the President and the libertarian crowd in general. Journalism is a stone in their boot, rather than a pillar of democracy.
Moving on, while Riorda isn’t fond of projections, he suggests the Milei administration could retain popular support for approximately 12 months, meaning they could very well last until the end of the year when the impact of falling inflation could be substantially more palpable. The question about how long the population will resist the economic brutality of the policies being enacted by Economy Minister Luis ‘Toto’ Caputo must also be considered.
For the “Enfant Terrible,” though, that’s not really what’s important: what really matters is that Milei is declared Emperor of the Argentine Republic and that all those in his way bow down or step aside.
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