A world leader who is revered by MAGA fans doesn't quite fit in with Donald Trump's political perspective, a new report suggests.
Trump has consistently embraced Javier Milei, who has been the president of Argentina since December of 2023. Some have even said Trump and his allies see the libertarian Milei as a "role model."
But the Economist showed in a new article on Thursday that there is more to Milei than meets the eye.
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"Argentina’s president is idolised by the Trumpian right," the piece says. "They should get to know him better."
In terms of where Milei fits in from the lens of American politics, the Economist states that, "The left detests him and the Trumpian right embraces him, but he truly belongs to neither group."
"He has shown that the continual expansion of the state is not inevitable. And he is a principled rebuke to opportunistic populism, of the sort practised by Donald Trump," the report states. "Mr Milei believes in free trade and free markets, not protectionism; fiscal discipline, not reckless borrowing; and, instead of spinning popular fantasies, brutal public truth-telling."
It continues:
"What is fascinating is the philosophy behind the figures. Mr Milei is often wrongly lumped in with populist leaders such as Mr Trump, the hard right in France and Germany or Viktor Orban in Hungary. In fact he comes from a different tradition. A true believer in open markets and individual liberty, he has a quasi-religious zeal for economic freedom, a hatred of socialism and, as he told us in an interview this week, 'infinite' contempt for the state. Instead of industrial policy and tariffs, he promotes trade with private firms that do not interfere in Argentina’s domestic affairs, including Chinese ones."
New York University professor and expert on authoritarianism, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, said, "This is key: Mr. Chainsaw the fake populist spent years working for one of Argentina's richest billionaires: a class that has contempt for laws regulations and bureaucracies that hinder their plunder."
