{"id":200307,"date":"2025-10-14T21:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/200307\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T21:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:27:07","slug":"trump-threatens-to-cut-us-aid-to-argentina-if-milei-loses-election-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/200307\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump threatens to cut US aid to Argentina if Milei loses election | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has warned he could cut financial aid to Argentina if his ally Javier Milei<\/a> loses crucial legislative elections later this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina<\/a>,\u201d the US president said as Milei visited the White House to seek the Republican\u2019s political and economic support. \u201cI\u2019m with this man because his philosophy is correct. And he may win and he may not win \u2013 I think he\u2019s going to win. And if he wins we are staying with him, and if he doesn\u2019t win we are gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s administration has already promised $20bn to prop up Argentina\u2019s struggling economy but his backing has failed to calm the markets \u2013 or help Milei\u2019s polling before midterms on 26 October.<\/p>\n

The results of the elections, in which Milei\u2019s minority party is hoping to boost its seat tally, will dictate whether he can pass tough cost-cutting reforms or will face a legislative brick wall for the next two years of his term.<\/p>\n

Hailing Milei as a \u201cgreat leader\u201d, Trump said he would \u201cfully endorse\u201d his ideological ally in the elections. \u201cHe\u2019s Maga all the way, it\u2019s \u2018Make Argentina Great Again,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Trump has, however, faced questions about how a big bailout for Argentina tallies with that same \u201cAmerica First\u201d policy. Asked by reporters what the benefit to the United States was, Trump replied: \u201cWe are helping a great philosophy take over a great country. We want to see it succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Argentina struggling to stave off yet another financial crisis and Milei\u2019s disapproval ratings rising, the country\u2019s president has come to his rightwing ally Trump for help.<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly voiced political support for Milei, while backing it up with a promise of huge economic aid, but the markets remain spooked by Argentina. In recent weeks, the highly indebted country has had to spend more than $1bn to defend the peso, a strategy most economists believe is unsustainable.<\/p>\n

That prompted Milei\u2019s allies in Washington to step in with a financial bailout. \u201cArgentina faces a moment of acute illiquidity,\u201d the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said last week, announcing a $20bn deal.<\/p>\n

The announcement sparked a rally in Argentine bonds and stocks and helped ease pressure on the peso. It also marked a rare instance of direct US intervention in Latin American currency markets, underscoring Washington\u2019s strategic interest in Milei\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

In Argentina, there has been fevered speculation about what Trump might want from Milei in return for his support. Before Milei took power, Argentina \u2013 a major lithium producer \u2013 had been deepening ties with China.<\/p>\n

The Argentine president\u2019s office said the leaders would discuss \u201cmultiple topics\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump also threatened trade penalties, including tariffs, against Spain on Tuesday, saying he was unhappy with its refusal to raise defence spending to 5% and calling the move disrespectful to Nato.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very unhappy with Spain,\u201d he told reporters at the White House. \u201cThey\u2019re the only country that didn\u2019t raise their number up to 5%. I was thinking of giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did, and I think I may do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nato leaders agreed in June to raise military spending to 5%, although the Spanish prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, secured a last-minute exemption at the time, saying Spain would only spend up to 2.1%. Madrid has argued it compensates for the lower spending with strong troop contributions to Nato missions, including deployments in Latvia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has warned he could cut financial aid to Argentina if his ally Javier Milei loses crucial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-200307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}