by Provocators, autocrats, populists and detractors of progressive culture. Lovers of TV and networks and a declared mission to make their country great again. Is Javier Milei a “mini-Donald Trump,” as many in the United States define him? Yes, but not so much: there are many differences between the two, some important, according to experts consulted by Clarion.
Milei is a big admirer of Trump and does not spare his praise for the tycoon. “He is one of the few who fully understood that the fight is against socialism, against the statists”ha said.
But the former head of the White House has also dedicated tweets of admiration to the Argentine. He was one of the first to greet him when he won the presidency and days ago he published another message: “Milei is MAKING ARGENTINA GREAT AGAIN!)” (A play on words with his campaign slogan Make America Great Again. “I hope I can help you in the future!”said the billionaire who today is heading for the Republican nomination and will compete in the November presidential elections against Joe Biden.
Jaime FlorezRepublican Party spokesperson for Hispanic media, tells this correspondent that “Trump finds many things in common with Milei”. He explains that “they both call a spade a spade without worrying about political correctness or adversaries, facing the problems and are aware that it is not going to be easy. They know that the world is going to fall on them, but they understand that someone has to do it and that they are chosen for that purpose.” Both, in addition, “want their countries to return to what they once were” that is, the MAGA movement.
Florez points out some differences. “Milei is much more academic than Trump, who is a man of business, of action.. Milei is more intellectually structured,” she says. And he adds another nuance: “Trump has more direct relationship with his party and believes in the same structural bases of the Republican Party, which are smaller government, little intervention in people’s lives and fiscal responsibility.”
The official points out another important difference. He highlights that Trump’s motto is “America First” and that has not hesitated to make decisions that contradict the principle of free trade and non-intervention of the State that Milei advocates.
“Trump believes that we must protect our industrialists and producers and close the way for foreign interests to take advantage of our markets with unfair cases such as Chinese products produced with cheap labor that affect our markets,” he says.
More protectionist than libertarian
Among the protectionist measures they took, Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnershipwho freed up trade with Asian countries, because he said it was harmful to American workers and industry, and renegotiated the FTA with Mexico and Canada for the same reason.
Nor did he hesitate to raise import tariffs on steel and aluminum from China to 25%. AND The Trump State had a fundamental intervention during the pandemic: promoted a historic stimulus package of US$ 2 trillion, which included checks of US$ 1,200 for adults and aid to small and large businesses, and then another of 900,000 million, while subsidizing US$ 10,000 million to laboratories that developed . the vaccine. Although he removed the regulations, Trump’s idea of the State does not fully coincide with those of the libertarian.
Agustina Giraudyresearcher and professor of Political Science at American University, points out that the American’s love affair with Milei has to do with the “megalomaniac” tendency to have a kind of international coalition of politicians similar to him, that interests Trump. Also because Milei is the only one on the right in an important South American country, there is no other reference.”
Between both “there are common ideologies in terms of antifeminism, opposition to abortion, her radical speech and reaction against minorities, against the woke movement. Similarities are seen in the style of government that is much more undemocratic than what we are used to here in the United States and in Argentina. Trump went so far as to want to annul the election results and promote the assault on the Capitol and Milei with his autocratic style. Both are unfiltered, politically incorrect. Even their hair is similar,” says Giraudy.
The expert raises some differences and agrees with Florez: “In style and in ideological points that have to do with the cultural battle they are similar, then not so much. Ideologically they are similar in their conservatism, but they are different in the role that the State plays for them”, one of the most important premises of the libertarian. “Milei is zero State, total anarchism, and Trump is not like thatbut we use the State to influence the economy, trade with China, subsidies and investments in vaccines.”
However, for Giraudy the big difference between the two is that “Milei arrives almost without a party, making an alliance with Macriism, bullrichism, but nothing to do with the US Republican Party, which rallied behind him and immediately endorsed . her proposals in Congress.” Furthermore, he points out, Trump built very strong coalitions with important governors, many from his own party. That alliance “was a very important source for Trump’s governability. Milei does not have that benefit, its territorial presence is null.”
“Milei is a Mini Trump”
Paraca Federico Finchelsteinprofessor and director of the History department at the New School, expert on populism and fascism, “Milei is a mini-Trump”. He explains that “both belong to a new breed of populist politicians who identify and elevate each other, praise themselves and have a new view of a political system that tends to diminish, bastardize democracy.”
Milei “copies all the strategies of Trumpism, he lies in the same way. “These characters are very obsessed with their sexuality.” As an example, she says that Fatima showed a photo of the president’s foot and Trump boasted about the size of his hands, which would imply an allusion to his genitals.
The expert also mentions the appointment of family members in key positions (Trump appointed his year and Milei his sister) and also who have come out to denounce “fraud without evidence” (in the Argentine case before the elections).
However, Finchelstein makes a difference. “On an economic level, Milei appears to be a fan of austerity and shock much more than Trump. The cult of personality and her own ideas go beyond all logic. Milei seeks to make what he believes an absolute truth and is an authoritarian populist who plays the role of a technocrat. On his side, Trump “was built more like a millionaire, who knows how to make money, a winner. He has to do with something very American.”
And what does Trump gain by praising Milei? “He won, he generates interest and he is doing the same thing as him. In a peripheral framework, he tries to carry out Trump’s policy, although with nuances.
