Javier Milei Is Not Donald Trump

Things can happen in other parts of the world without involving the former president of the United States.

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Javier Milei attends the presidential debate ahead of the November 19 general election, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 12, 2023.

Luis Robayo/Pool via Reuters

Javier Milei won the presidency in Argentina, and the media can’t stop talking about Donald Trump. Business Insider called Milei “Argentina’s Trump-like presidential candidate.” The Daily Beast called him the “‘Donald Trump’ of Argentina.” A common formulation used in election-recap articles (from the New York Times, CNN, NPR, and the Associated Press) is to say that Milei “drew comparisons” to Trump. Those comparisons were almost invariably drawn by other media outlets in their prior coverage of the campaign.

There’s a grain of truth to the comparison. Milei has said he sees Trump as part of the fight against socialism, and Trump has praised Milei. Milei, like Trump, is an outsider to politics, having previously won only one election, to the Argentine Congress in 2021, and he is on the right of the Argentine political spectrum.

Dominic Pino

About the Author

Dominic Pino

Dominic Pino is a former economics editor and Thomas L. Rhodes Fellow at National Review and the former host of the American Institute for Economic Research podcast Econception.

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