President Donald Trump’s $20 billion bailout of Argentina’s economy has raised red flags in the U.S., especially among American farmers desperate for help dealing with a crop crisis triggered by his trade war with China.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei met with Trump and top U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Tuesday at the White House.
The meeting came nearly a week after Bessent announced a $20 billion financial lifeline that included a currency swap framework with Argentina’s central bank aimed at propping up the Argentine peso.
“We just want to see Argentina do well,” Trump told reporters during the meeting.
Details still unclear
In an X post last week, Bessent said the U.S. finalized a $20 billion swap line, or a loan, with Argentina’s central bank, where the U.S. Treasury will exchange dollars for pesos.
The expectation, Bessent has said, is that those dollars will eventually be paid back.
Bessent also said last week the U.S. directly purchased pesos, without specifying how much.
The Treasury Department had not published any details about the terms of the swap agreement as of Tuesday and ultimately the dollars it’s offering to Argentina’s central bank are U.S. taxpayer dollars.
“You can call it a bailout, you can call it a rescue, it is a credit line to a country that otherwise would be out of reserves,” Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Treasury official, told ABC News.
Bessent has repeatedly denied that the deal is a bailout, saying the U.S. is supporting the economic reforms of a key South American ally and advancing U.S. strategic interests in the region.
The Treasury Department has not responded to ABC News requests for more information on the deal.
Farmers, leaders on both sides sound off
The bailout has sparked controversy with farmers, Democrats and some Republicans questioning why the U.S. would commit billions to boost the economy of a foreign country, especially when thousands of American soybean farmers are suffering and in need of help.
China stopped purchasing American soybeans amid the trade war with the United States. According to the American Soybean Association, China is the largest buyer of American soybeans, purchasing more than 50 percent of U.S. exports in 2023 and 2024.
While some American farmers have said they are afraid of bankruptcies and foreclosures because of their losses, Argentina and Brazil’s farmers are increasingly supplying Chinese markets — with soybeans.
Ben Steffen, a Nebraska soybean and corn farmer, who spoke to ABC News from his tractor Tuesday, said the U.S. is “bailing out our competitor in the soybean production business.”
“Clearly, people are not happy about the markets, and my neighbors are not happy about bailing out Argentina,” he said.
Minnesota farmer Darin Johnson said China’s purchase of soybeans from Argentina has cost the U.S. leverage in trade talks, by satisfying China’s demand for the crop.
But he added that many farmers still support Trump, despite any frustrations with some of the administration’s policies.
“We’re going to put it to good faith in this administration that we are going to get a trade deal, but we are running out of time,” Johnson said. “Without a little help from this administration, which we don’t know what is going on yet, there is still a fair amount of uncertainty.”
Ryan Marquardt, an Iowa farmer, told ABC News on Tuesday that the bailout for Argentina seems to run counter to Trump’s “America First” vision.
“It does feel like you are propping up your competition. It does seem counterintuitive to the America First ideology,” he said. “I don’t see any place where we come out ahead from that transaction.”
Democrats have accused the White House of neglecting farmers and other Americans at a time of economic turmoil and uncertainty.
“The truth is clear: Trump put America second, bailing out another country while abandoning American farmers,” the Democratic National Committee said in a press release Monday.
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley also criticized the priorities of the administration in an X post last month when word of the Argentine deal was making the rounds.
“Why would USA help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers’ biggest market, he said. “We shld use leverage at every turn to help hurting farm economy Family farmers shld be top of mind in negotiations by representatives of USA.”
The American Soybean Association’s president, Kentucky farmer Caleb Ragland, said in a statement in September that “frustration” with the Trump administration was “overwhelming.”
“U.S. soybean prices are falling, harvest is underway, and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $20 billion in economic support to Argentina while that country drops its soybean export taxes to sell 20 shiploads of Argentine soybeans to China in just two days,” Ragland said.
“The farm economy is suffering while our competitors supplant the United States in the biggest soybean import market in the world,” he added.
Trump has promised to help the soybean farmers, at one point claiming that money from tariffs would be used to assist them financially, but no such proposal had been formalized as of Tuesday.
The administration has blamed the current federal government shutdown for delaying the rollout of an assistance package.
The president has also called on China to purchase U.S. soybeans — to no avail.
“President Trump pledged to put American farmers first, and every historic trade agreement that his Administration has struck with the EU, Japan, and others includes unprecedented provisions to expand American agricultural exports,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to ABC News.
“The Administration continues to fight for American farmers in trade negotiations, and also remains committed to using tariff revenue to support farmers who have been left in the lurch due to unfair foreign trade practices,” he added.
Trump says deal helps South American conservative ally before election
The Argentine bailout comes at a politically crucial time for its controversial president.
Milei has made headlines for his libertarian beliefs and has frequently been seen with conservative leaders and figures, including Elon Musk, who he joined at this year’s CPAC and gave him a what became a famous mock chainsaw, praising Musk’s DOGE cuts.
Trump has frequently praised Milei and backed his leadership, praising his right-wing, cost-cutting agenda in Argentina.
“They have a great leader,” Trump told reporters just before his meeting with Milei on Tuesday.
However, the 55-year-old is facing serious competition in Argentina’s Oct. 26 election as he has been hit with rising disapproval ratings over the last few months, according to Reuters.
The U.S. deal seeks to stabilize the peso just as Argentine voters head to the polls.
“We’re helping a great philosophy take over a great country … we want him to succeed,” Trump said Tuesday, adding that if Milei is successful, other countries in South America could follow its lead politically.
Trump later said the currency swap is dependent on Milei’s success during the country’s upcoming elections.
“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” Trump said. “If he doesn’t win, we’re gone,” he said.
Trump said “no” when asked how the currency swap was an “America First” policy — if it was just to help Milei in the upcoming election.
Bessent echoed the president’s sentiment Tuesday, claiming that the U.S. is using its economic strength to create peace in South America.
“It’s hope for the future,” Bessent said. “I think that with the bridge the U.S. is giving them and with the strong policies, that Argentina can be great again.”
Bessent’s finance colleagues come under scrutiny
Bessent has also been on the hot seat over Argentina’s ties to some of his former colleagues in the finance world.
Rob Citrone, a billionaire who once worked with Bessent, has sizable investments in Latin America and Argentina, according to SEC filings.
A spokesperson for Citrone and Discovery Capital Management, his hedge fund, declined to comment to ABC News.
Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller — a longtime friend of Bessent — has publicly said he invested in Argentina after Milei’s election. Druckenmiller did not immediately return messages to ABC News for comment.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a message seeking comment about reports that Bessent had discussed Argentina with Citrone, or additional requests for comment on the deal.
Bessent denied the deal had any connection to his finance colleagues in a CNBC interview last week where he said the “trope that we’re helping out wealthy Americans with interest down there couldn’t be more false.”
“What we’re doing is maintaining a U.S. strategic interest in the Western Hemisphere,” he added.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray and Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
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