Trump Says Argentina Aid 'Gone' if Milei Doesn't Win Midterms: Q&A

President Trump met with Argentinian president Milei and discussed the $20 billion lifeline the US recently provided to Argentina. President Trump also answered questions on other foreign policy priorities, including his relationship with China's President Xi as the trade war between the United States and China escalated further this week.

President Donald Trump suggested the $20 billion lifeline the US has provided Buenos Aires could be contingent on Argentine President Javier Milei’s success in the midterm elections as the pair met at the White House on Tuesday.

“If he wins we’re staying with him, and if he doesn’t win we’re gone,” Trump told reporters, adding that the pair also planned to discuss a potential free trade agreement.

While Trump at other points batted away suggestions that US assistance was intended to boost Milei politically, he also repeatedly emphasized that the $20 billion currency swap — meant to help shore up Argentina’s peso and calm financial markets in the South American nation — was intended as a signal of support for the Argentine leader’s economic philosophy.

“We want to help Argentina,” Trump said Tuesday, touting trade as a way to help bolster the country. “One of the ways we can do, they have great product, and we used to do a lot of trade.”

Investors hungry for more details on the US lifeline appeared unimpressed. Argentina’s bonds dropped across the curve, reversing earlier gains, after Trump said aid was contingent on Milei’s success. The country’s dollar notes maturing in 2035 fell by 2.4 cents on the dollar, to trade around 57 cents, according to indicative pricing data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the biggest drop since Sept. 30.

President Donald Trump said he would seek to move 2026 World Cup games out of Boston and shift the 2028 Olympics out of Los Angeles if he thought the cities weren’t properly prepared or if conditions were unsafe.

The greater Boston area is set to host seven World Cup matches next summer at Gillette Stadium. Trump said he would call FIFA President Gianni Infantino and ask him to relocate those games if the city’s policies under Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat, were creating safety concerns. He was responding to a question that referenced a recent spate of so-called street takeovers in Massachusetts where crowds or groups of vehicles have blocked roads and created disturbances.

Milei is less than two weeks out from a pivotal midterm election that is set to decide the future of his reform efforts. A libertarian economist, the Argentine president has brandished a chainsaw to champion cuts to government spending and a series of austerity measures that proved unpopular with voters, helping drive higher disapproval ratings.

Extraordinary financial assistance from the US, meanwhile, is also doing little to boost Milei’s standing with voters. Should his libertarian party get between 35% and 40% of the congressional vote on Oct. 26, investors would consider that a victory. Anything less that 30%, however, would likely trigger a large sell-off.

“Conditioning the support of the US administration to a Milei victory in an explicit way could actually be a political blow to the libertarians’ campaign,” Ramiro Blazquez, a strategist at StoneX in Buenos Aires, said by email.

While this month’s vote will refresh more than half of Congress, Argentina’s next presidential election is in 2027.

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