BUENOS AIRES – Nearly three years after Javier Milei became Argentina’s president, the chainsaw-wielding free-marketeer has established himself as the darling of the far right. Even in the run-up to Brazil’s Sunday election, right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro campaigned on an economic policy that followed Milei’s lead, and U.S. President Donald Trump calls Milei his “favorite president.”

Last year, Trump extended Argentina an unprecedented $20 billion currency swap line to halt its currency’s free fall on the eve of legislative elections and the gambit worked. Milei’s party won a surprising victory.

More than a mere symbol or role model for the far right, Milei plays a crucial role in Trump’s new “Shield of the Americas,” a security umbrella designed to ward off U.S. rivals and turn Latin America into a resource-rich hinterland of U.S.-compliant partners. But since Milei’s contributions to Trump’s hemispheric order depend on Argentina’s economic performance, one must ask how MAGA’s South American poster child has fared.

The “Chainsaw Plan” (Plan Motosierra) that Milei unveiled in June 2022 was more than a means to halt hyperinflation. The larger goal was to squeeze the life out of a public sector that had come to be seen as a source of political patronage and to make Argentina great again as a primary goods exporter. This vision happily aligns with the Trump administration’s........

© The Japan Times