Trump says he doesn't think Argentina needs a bailout, but US will help

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump stopped short Tuesday of promising Argentina's President Javier Milei a financial bailout from the Latin American country's economic turmoil.

“We’re going to help them. I don’t think they need a bailout,” Trump told reporters. He sat alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Milei on Tuesday afternoon on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“Scott is working with their country so that they can get good debt and all of the things that you need to make Argentina great again," he said.

Bessent posted on X Monday that “all options for stabilization are on the table” for Argentina.

Options being contemplated include the purchase of Argentina’s currency or sovereign debt by a fund controlled by the U.S. Treasury, called the Exchange Stabilization Fund, Bessent said. Argentina is one of the biggest Latin American economies and the biggest borrower from the International Monetary Fund — its total outstanding credit as of Aug. 31 is $41.8 billion.

The offer to financially help Argentina comes as Trump has frequently promoted his “America First” agenda. Critics contend that the planned intervention is a way to reward a personal friend of Trump’s who is facing a critical midterm election next month.

“At a time when Americans are struggling to afford groceries, rent, credit card bills, and other debt payments,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., “it is deeply troubling that the President intends to use significant emergency funds to inflate the value of a foreign government’s currency and bolster its financial markets.”

She called any planned U.S. intervention in Argentina’s economy a bailout. “I do not understand why it is in the interest of the United States to provide one, nor how one would be designed to ensure the best outcomes for the Argentinian people, instead of hedge fund investors.”

Miliei's Argentina is weighed down by political and economic adversity, including fears that the country's current stagnation could turn into a recession and that the devaluation of the peso, caused by the soaring dollar, could reignite prices, among other problems.

The setbacks have revealed an erosion of Milei’s support among broad sectors who, despite the drop in inflation, feel their economic situation has worsened in the context of an austerity plan unlike anything Argentina has ever seen.

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Calatrava and Rey reported from Buenos Aires.