Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday the U.S. is prepared to offer Argentina a financial lifeline after a disappointing local election for Argentine President Javier Milei prompted market chaos and a plunge in its peso currency.
Mr. Bessent said Argentina is a “systemically important U.S. ally” in Latin America, so the Treasury “stands ready to do what is needed within its mandate to support Argentina.”
“All options for stabilization are on the table,” he wrote on X.
He said the options include currency swap lines, direct currency purchases and the use of the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund.
The stabilization fund was established in 1934 and is used to influence currency exchange rates without affecting the domestic money supply within a country. The U.S. deployed it in the 1990s to provide currency swaps and loan guarantees to Mexico, which had suffered an economic crisis.
“Opportunities for private investment remain expansive, and Argentina will be Great Again,” Mr. Bessent said.
Mr. Milei’s party suffered disappointing results in a Buenos Aires-area election, casting doubt on his ability to enact free-market reforms.
Mr. Milei is a close ally of Mr. Trump. He gained fame for taking a chainsaw — he literally wielded one in public — to government spending and bureaucracy, saying it was an overdue change in the South American nation that experienced rampant inflation and borrowing under left-wing governments.
The movement inspired billionaire Elon Musk to pursue similar efforts in the U.S. under the Department of Government Efficiency, leading the Trump administration to close departments, cut spending and lay off thousands of federal workers.
Mr. Milei gave Mr. Musk his own chainsaw, which the tech billionaire wielded on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.
Argentina secured a $20 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund as Mr. Milei tried to overhaul the nation’s economy.
New wobbles in Argentina’s financial system prompted the U.S. to propose to intervene on Monday.
The government in Buenos Aires announced its own measures Monday, suspending taxes on grain exports to boost its supply of dollars.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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