If President Donald Trump is worried the $20 billion economic lifeline he’s sending to Argentina in the middle of a US government shutdown might cause him political headaches, he didn’t show it Tuesday.
Instead, as he sat for lunch with his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, Trump said in no uncertain terms that the injection of US dollars was about bolstering a top ideological ally who faces a political reckoning. And he was explicit that US economic support is conditional on Milei remaining in power.
“If he wins, we’re staying with him,” Trump said in the Cabinet Room, betraying little concern about blowback for the infusion of cash his officials insist is not a bailout. “And if he doesn’t win, we’re gone.”
Perhaps no world leader has embraced Trump and his slash-and-burn approach more than Milei, who — with his mop of dark hair, black leather jacket, past life as frontman in a Rolling Stones tribute band and pack of English mastiffs he claims provide him
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