House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday hammered the Trump administration’s effort to provide $40 billion to help Argentina’s conservative leader weather that country’s financial crisis.
Jeffries wondered why Republicans in Washington are willing to secure so much funding for a foreign government but are balking at Democratic demands to subsidize health care for working class people at home.
“It’s perplexing to us that Republicans refuse to spend a dime to protect the health care of the American people, but somehow the Trump administration found $40 billion to bail out a right-wing wannabe dictator in Argentina,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.
Hours earlier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the administration is seeking $20 billion in new funding for the government of Argentine President Javier Milei, a right-wing populist allied with Trump. That’s on top of $20 billion the administration has already provided to help Milei prop up a crumbling economy.
The first round of funding came earlier in the month, in the form of a direct currency swap. The second, Bessent said, would originate from sovereign funds and the private sector, not U.S. taxpayers.
“Many banks are interested in it and many sovereign funds have expressed interest,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Argentina has come under fire from lawmakers in both parties for increasing its soybean sales to China after Beijing stopped purchasing American soybeans in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jeffries is among those lawmakers, and he criticized the administration for propping up the Argentinian economy but not U.S. farmers.
“That’s outrageous. This is corruption in real time,” Jeffries said. “It’s having serious consequences on the American people.”
On Tuesday, Milei had visited the White House to meet with Trump. Afterward, Trump said he might withhold the billions of dollars earmarked for Argentina if Milei’s party loses in national elections slated for later this month.
“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” Trump told reporters.
“I think he’s going to win,” he continued. “And if he wins, we’re staying with him, and if he doesn’t win, we’re gone.”
The comments were criticized by opposition leaders in Argentina, and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who accused the president of dangling the funds in an effort to influence the outcome of a foreign election.
