Trump's new cabinet intends to transform the United States with Javier Milei as a reference

Elon Musk and Donald Trump were at the America First Policy Institute's Nov. 14 gala at Mar-a-Lago. However, when the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, arrived at the dinner, all the attention was on him. And that's no small thing. When you're in the same room with Musk, Trump and other personalities like Vivek Ramaswamy; standing out is a giant challenge. Still, Milei stole the show.

Javier Milei is a rara avis. From being an extremely local phenomenon, the Argentine president has become perhaps the first Latin American figure that the world of American politics is watching in awe. Above all, the Republican world, which historically had not paid so much attention to the rest of the continent.

The U.S. conservative world's honeymoon with Javier Milei probably started when, almost two months before Argentina's presidential elections in September 2023, Tucker Carlson, perhaps the world's most influential conservative journalist, traveled to Buenos Aires to interview the eccentric presidential candidate. Then, his plans for cuts, deregulation, and red tape captivated Carlson.

Elon Musk recommended the interview, which lasted only half an hour. At that moment, Javier Milei transcended and became a global phenomenon.

Out!

The campaign for this year's U.S. presidential election was extremely peculiar. Trump assembled a coalition that transcended the political and partisan spectrum. And something that seemed to cut across the political spectrum was the appreciation of Javier Milei.

One of his most popular videos, in which the Argentinean, standing next to a blackboard, begins to tear out the government posts one by one to the cry of "Out!" as a sign of his deregulatory will and his war against bureaucracy, was echoed in the campaign for the White House.

In January of this year, when he was still a presidential pre-candidate for the Republican Party, conservative politician Vivek Ramaswamy published a post on X saying, "my goal as president will be to make Milei look like a moderate."

Then, in June, now as part of Trump's coalition, Ramaswamy said at a Turning Point event that, to save America, you have to "drain the swamp," meaning shut down various agencies and reduce bureaucracy.

"Close these agencies! Department of Education? Shut it down! FATF? Close it down! FBI? Shut it down!" he said. Then, in Spanish, he hurled, "Fuera!"

About three months before the election, when it sounded like Elon Musk might take a position to downsize the state in an eventual Trump administration, the billionaire posted on X "¡Afuera!" referencing the information.

A model for the new government

One of Trump's first appointments was to name Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy leaders of the newly constituted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was designed precisely to reduce the size of the State.

Since the appointment, both Musk and Ramaswamy have made it clear that Javier Milei's economic measures in Argentina are a benchmark for their plans for the U.S.

"A reasonable formula for fixing the U.S. government: Milei-style cuts, on steroids," Ramaswamy said this Nov. 18.

Also that day, Musk tweeted, "Government reforms brought prosperity to Argentina!"

Trump's nominee to chair the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), Brendan Carr, also referred to Milei's phrase.

During his speech at the American First Policy Institute gala, Trump praised Milei. The president-elect congratulated the Argentine and said that what he has achieved in his country is "incredible."

"Javier, I want to congratulate you for what you have done for Argentina (...) You have done a fantastic job in a very short period of time. It's an honor to have you here," Donald Trump told Milei.