Trump Bets Big on Argentina: $20B Currency Deal Sparks Bailout Backlash

The Trump administration just dropped a $20 billion lifeline on Argentina, and not everyone’s clapping.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Thursday that Washington had finalized a currency swap with Argentina’s central bank, saying the U.S. would buy Argentine pesos to help stabilize the country’s battered economy.

“Argentina faces a moment of acute illiquidity,” Bessent wrote on X. “The international community is unified behind Argentina’s prudent fiscal strategy — but only the United States can act swiftly. And act we will.”

The deal follows four days of talks between Bessent and Argentina’s finance minister Luis Caputo, who thanked him for the move.

The support comes as Argentina’s libertarian firebrand president Javier Milei, one of Trump’s loudest admirers, scrambles to stop the peso from collapsing. In recent weeks, Argentina’s currency has nosedived more than 6 percent in a single day, bond prices have tanked, and the central bank has burned through what’s left of its foreign reserves trying to keep things afloat.

Washington insists this isn’t a “bailout,” but that line hasn’t convinced everyone. Farmers and Democrats back home are furious, accusing Trump of rescuing an ally who’s been cozying up to China.

“It is inexplicable that President Trump is propping up a foreign government while he shuts down our own,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, introducing a bill called the No Argentina Bailout Act to block the Treasury from using its stabilization fund. “Trump promised ‘America First,’ but he’s putting himself and his billionaire buddies first.”

Economists say the deal may buy Milei a few months of breathing room, but not much more.

“It’s a lifeline, not a panacea,” said Andres Abadia, chief Latin America economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

“If Milei performs badly in October, the negative political and financial noise would rush back. That would be a grim scenario.”