The administration is weighing a $20 billion swap line and other financial lifelines to stabilize Argentina's economy and back President Javier Milei's sweeping market reforms—but President Trump doesn't want to call it a bailout. "We're going to help them. I don't think they need a bailout," Trump said Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, sitting alongside Milei and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. "Scott is working with their country so that they can get good debt and all of the things that you need to make Argentina great again," Trump said, per the AP. In a post on X later Tuesday, Bessent said talks were ongoing.
Bessent said the US could provide credit from its $219.5 billion exchange stabilization fund and buy up Argentina's dollar bonds—moves that would give Buenos Aires much-needed dollars to shore up the peso, the Wall Street Journal reports. The offer comes as Milei's government reels from financial turbulence and a stinging election defeat to leftist rivals in Buenos Aires province, raising doubts about the future of his economic reforms ahead of October's crucial midterms. The peso, down a third in 2025 alone, steadied Monday after Bessent said "all options for stabilization are on the table," though analysts warn US backing only buys time, not a fix for Argentina's entrenched woes.
Luis Caputo, Argentina's economy minister, welcomed the news, calling it the dawn of a "new era," while Bessent stressed that US help aims to prevent "excessive volatility." What's unusual, analysts note, is the US acting on its own rather than alongside international bodies, highlighting Washington's willingness to use its financial muscle to reward allies. In a Truth Social post Tuesday, Trump described Milei as a" very good friend, fighter, and WINNER." Trump praised his handling of the economy, saying Milei "inherited a 'total mess' with horrible Inflation caused by the previous Radical Left President."
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, accused Bessent of trying to bail out Argentina's economy with taxpayer money and asked him to explain the move, Reuters reports. "At a time when Americans are struggling to afford groceries, rent, credit card bills, and other debt payments," she said, "it is deeply troubling that the president intends to use significant emergency funds to inflate the value of a foreign government's currency and bolster its financial markets."
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