(C) Common Dreams
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Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Man in Buenos Aires [1]
['Jacob Sugarman', 'John Nichols', 'Waleed Shahid', 'Katherine Krueger', 'John Ganz', 'Elizabeth Becker', 'James Bamford', 'Fred Weir', 'Ruwaida Kamal Amer', 'Juan Cole']
Date: 2024-10-15 09:30:00+00:00
World / Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Man in Buenos Aires Argentine President Javier Milei is chainsawing his way through his country’s social safety net. That could be a preview of things to come in the United States.
Argentine President Javier Milei poses for a picture next to TESLA cofounder and director Elon Musk (L) at Gigafactory Texas on April 12, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (Presidencia de la Nación Argentina / Handout / Getty Images)
Buenos Aires—Late last month, two images went viral on Argentine social media. The first captured a wild-eyed Javier Milei wielding a wooden mallet at the New York Stock Exchange like Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie À Deux. The second, taken several hours later, showed the Argentine president grinning broadly and flashing two thumbs up next to X CEO and Donald Trump megadonor Elon Musk. The latter wore a black suit and matching black-on-black “Dark MAGA” hat.
One day after telling some 200 Wall Street traders about his government’s “unwavering commitment to fiscal balance,” Milei addressed his fellow world leaders at the 79th General Assembly of the United Nations with the fervor of an evangelist, branding the body’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development a “socialist supra-nationalist government program.”
“The woke agenda’s collectivism and moral posturing have collided with reality and no longer offer credible solutions to the world’s real problems,” he said. Milei was subsequently accused of plagiarizing The West Wing in a separate portion of his speech.
Eight hundred miles away in Savannah, Georgia, Trump, who has called the Argentine president a “great gentleman,” promised his supporters that he would create “millions and millions of jobs” through punitive tariffs on the United States’ trade partners, although he was characteristically short on specifics.
If the last three election cycles have taught us anything, divining Trump’s policy proposals is a fool’s errand. This is a candidate who has suggested he would use those same tariffs to pay for childcare and that he has “concepts of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act. Should Trump prevail this November, however, it seems clear that Elon Musk will play a pivotal role in his administration—either as his most powerful propagandist or in a more formal capacity, as the head of a “government efficiency commission.” (Ever the Internet memelord, Musk has dubbed it the Department of Government Efficiency.)
Trump has already signaled a willingness to cut Medicaid and Social Security. To understand what this might look like in practice, one need only gaze toward Latin America, where Milei’s austerity policies are chainsawing their way through the social fabric—or, as Musk calls it, “bringing prosperity to Argentina.”
Eduardo Barneix, 78, was not so much a demonstrator as he was a human placard. In his hand, he carried a sign that read on one side, “Milei. I’m a retiree! You’ve taken away my money, medicine, and food, but you can’t take away my dignity” and on the other, “Milei go home! I’ll tell you in English because you don’t understand in Spanish. Enough repression!” Around his neck, he wore another smaller sign with the message, “If you’re not a coward, join our side.”
Less than 24 hours before Milei’s trip to New York, several hundred people gathered in front of the Casa Rosada on National Retiree’s Day to protest a presidential veto of legislation that would have ensured that government pensions covered the rising cost of the nation’s basic basket of goods. (Milei subsequently held an asado dinner for the 87 members of the lower house who voted to uphold his veto, hailing them as “heroes” who had stood up to the nation’s “fiscal degenerates.”)
“We’ve worked all these years, and we can’t even enjoy a miserable little sum in our retirement,” Barneix lamented. “We’re going without food and medicine. It’s truly a disaster what’s happening here.”
While representatives from organizations ranging from Aerolineas Argentinas, which is currently facing privatization, to the Teachers Union Association of the University of Buenos Aires to the Confederation of Retirees and Pensioners railed against Milei’s economic agenda, Silvia Perreyra, 72, listened on a nearby bench with downcast eyes behind a pair of sunglasses. A former employee at the Ministry of the Interior, she told The Nation that she “doesn’t recognize herself in this country.”
“I’m always stressed,” Perreyra said, acknowledging that she’s had to give up certain “luxuries” to survive in the new, libertarian Argentina. “I can’t take a short trip to the beach like I used to. I don’t eat out or buy pre-prepared food, and even basic medicines like antibiotics cost a fortune. I’m keeping it together, but my life has gotten smaller.”
“We’re violated all the time,” she continued. “I’m worried about what happens inside our heads when we accept that kind of violence.”
Last month, during an address by Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos to the lower house of Congress, approximately 100 opposition lawmakers walked out in protest as security forces fired tear gas and pepper spray on demonstrators outside. The overwhelming majority were retirees.
Shortly after assuming office in December of 2023, Milei removed price controls on private insurance and supermarket goods via executive decree. He has since launched an all-out war on the Argentine state, slashing public spending on education and healthcare, along with federal subsidies for utilities and transportation, all while eliminating tens of thousands of government jobs.
More recently, Milei vetoed legislation that would have allowed university funding to keep pace with inflation. Thousands of students and educators took to the streets in protest nationwide. The increased spending represented just 0.14 percent of GDP according to Argentina’s Congressional Budget Office, or less than 1/15 of the amount the Economy Ministry identified in 2023 as expenditures in the form of tax breaks for select business sectors. Like Trump, the Argentine president has called for a complete review of the program’s federal financing despite one already being provided by the office of the National Auditor General.
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[1] Url:
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/donald-trump-and-elon-musks-man-in-buenos-aires/
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