American President-elect Donald Trump held a brief phone conversation with Argentine President Javier Milei on Tuesday in which, according to Milei’s top spokesman, Trump declared the libertarian his “favorite president.”
The conversation occurred shortly before Milei was scheduled to travel to fly from Buenos Aires to Florida to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and potentially meet with President-elect Trump.
Trump won the November 5 presidential election, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris by a wide margin and becoming only the second president in American history to win two non-consecutive terms. He and Milei have repeatedly praised each other’s policy proposals in the past year and held a brief but warm meeting at the last edition of CPAC in February.
Milei has been president of Argentina since December 2023 after defeating the establishment socialist candidate, Economy Minister Sergio Massa. Milei rose to prominence in his country as an economist and cable news commenter and won the presidency as the candidate for his own third party, the libertarian Liberty Advances party.
Argentine presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni announced on Wednesday that Trump had held a phone conversation with Milei that day, one in an growing series of one-on-one talks with world leaders in the past week, and that Trump said to Milei, “you are my favorite president.”
Donald Trump al Presidente Javier Milei: “Usted es mi presidente favorito”.
— Manuel Adorni (@madorni) November 12, 2024
Fin.
Milei himself later shared a meme on Instagram celebrating the quote with a caption bearing the official Liberty Advances slogan, “long live liberty, damn it!”
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The conversation reportedly lasted ten minutes. Neither side has divulged details of the discussion, but Milei’s Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein told the news agency Infobae that it was “a good meeting between two people who admire each other a lot and will help build a better world.”
Milei was among the first to congratulate Trump on Tuesday, sharing messages on social media celebrating his return to the White House.
“Congratulations on your formidable electoral victory,” Milei wrote in a message to Trump published on social media. “Now, Make America Great Again. You know that You can count on Argentina to carry out your task.”
Milei also shared an image apparently created with artificial intelligence of Trump hugging a lion, the Liberty Advances mascot.
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Milei and Trump first met in person in February at the CPAC event in Maryland, where both addressed the audience. Shortly before the short encounter, Trump told Breitbart News that he held a conversation with Milei shortly after the latter’s presidential victory in late 2023 in which he thanked Trump for inspiring him.
“The Argentina guy said the greatest guy in the whole world is Donald Trump. He called me right after he won. I had never spoken to him,” Trump narrated. “He called me to thank me. I said, ‘Oh, why do you want to thank me?’ He said, ‘Your policies paved the way for this.’”
“He’s got everything,” Trump said of Milei. “He called me the night he won the election and he thanked me very much—he thanked me profusely. It’s called ‘Make Argentina Great Again.’ He’s got MAGA hats.”
Since taking office in December, Milei has become one of the world’s most outspoken right-wing leaders, promoting his libertarian economic principles as the most effective way to combat inflation and poverty. While inflation persists in Argentina, it has decelerated dramatically in less than a year, from 25.5 percent in December to 3.5 percent in September. Milei has also focused on eliminating cumbersome socialist economic regulations, such as an onerous rent control law – whose removal preceded a housing availability boom in August – and foreign investment restrictions. As of October, Argentina has built up a $16 billion trade surplus since December 2023.
In addition to economic reforms, Milei has adopted an unapologetically pro-American and pro-Israel foreign policy – a far departure from the policies of socialist predecessor Alberto Fernandez, who made the focus of his diplomatic overtures communist China and the world’s premier sponsor of terrorism, Iran. Milei has visited Israel on several occasions and been an outspoken supporter of Israel’s ongoing war against the Iranian proxy terrorist organization Hamas. Milei also recently fired his previous foreign minister, Diana Mondino, after Argentina voted against the American human rights sanctions on Cuba at the United Nations.
“Our country categorically opposes the Cuban dictatorship and will stand firm in promoting a foreign policy that condemns all regimes that perpetuate the violation of human rights and individual freedoms,” Milei’s office said in a statement.
Milei’s policies have made him a leader of the global right and Argentina an increasingly relevant to the global economy, particularly in contrast to the decline of Brazil, South America’s largest economy, under socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Following Milei’s trip to the United States this week, he is scheduled to host Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Buenos Aires for bilateral meetings prior to them both traveling to Rio de Janeiro for the annual G20 Summit.
