At CPAC Argentina, a Preview of Donald Trump’s Second Term

Trump was followed by a pair of speakers who gave video addresses in lieu of talks because their legal troubles prevented them from attending. The first was Jair Bolsonaro, who was recently implicated in a plot to assassinate then–President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after the 2022 presidential election in Brazil. The second was the political strategist Steve Bannon, who completed a four-month prison sentence in October for ignoring a subpoena from a congressional committee investigating the Capitol attacks on January 6, 2021. He is still facing charges of defrauding donors to his “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign and has pleaded not guilty.

During his speech, a bloated-looking Bannon called Argentina the “tip of the tip of the spear” for the “Judeo-Christian West,” suggesting that if the country were to fail, then so too would South America. The crowd clapped politely.

Outside the over-air-conditioned convention hall, past a display of Spanish-language books that included Milei: The Revolution They Didn’t See Coming, The Austrian School From the Inside, Generation Idiot, and The Black Book of the New Left, Juan Martin Pielach circled a buffet table of penne, beef stew, and broccoli au gratin in a blue suit and a bright red MAGA hat, the numbers “45-47” stitched on its side.

A student at North Carolina Wesleyan University, Pielach managed to avoid the general admission fee of $100, or just over 100,000 Argentine pesos, to see Milei and some of his newest allies in the United States.

“These are just rumors, but help seems to be on the way from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,” he told The Nation. “It would be good for us. Trump is a great businessman.”

While monthly inflation in Argentina has dropped from 25.5 percent in December 2023 when Milei assumed power to under 3 percent last month, Argentina’s international reserves remain low. In October, the International Monetary Fund predicted that the country’s GDP would contract a total of 3.8 percent this year. Economy Minister Santiago Caputo recently confirmed that he’s engaged in “informal talks” with the fund to secure a new loan.

Fernando Cerimedo, Milei’s former digital strategist who was recently indicted in Brazil for his role in fomenting the coup attempt against Lula, was more circumspect. Speaking to a small clutch of reporters, he acknowledged that while Trump’s victory was welcome news for the administration, it was likely to take a wait-and-see approach.

“I think it will be a fluid relationship, but let’s not expect a partnership where they’re hugging each other every day,” he said. “We can’t expect a Hercules plane to deliver $30 billion to Argentina on January 20. But luckily, Trump is in place, and I know that he and Milei really admire each other.”

The afternoon wore on, with Shapiro delivering his remarks so quickly that he seemed to create his own microphone feedback. His speech—a celebration of the economist Thomas Sowell and the democratizing force of the free markets—was largely unintelligible.

A local photographer asked if he was an influencer in the United States. I wasn’t quite sure how to answer.

Lake came after, describing Milei as a “highly caffeinated Donald Trump” before offering a familiar jeremiad about election integrity. “I think we can all agree that Joe Biden didn’t get 81 million votes,” she said, intimating that her recent senate race, in which she lost by 2.4 percent despite virtually the entire country shifting right, was stolen.

Abril Agustina wasn’t listening. A 23-year-old member of the Libertarian organization Somos Libertarios 3F, which takes its name from a street in Buenos Aires, she revealed she joined the movement last year after casting a blank ballot in the 2019 presidential election.

“We have a president now who tells it like it is,” Agustina explained. “And the best part of all is that he does the things he says he’s going to do. We’re already starting to see results ahead of schedule. By lowering inflation, the outlook for 2027 is very good. And if the entire country goes purple (the official color of LLA), you can rest assured that economic liberalism will reach every corner of Latin America.”

“The freer the Americas are, the freer the market,” she continued. “And the United States just got freer.”

Sometime after, Mercedes Schlapp, herself a first-generation Cuban American from Miami, Florida, ventured into a communal area in front of the escalators, fielding a few questions from reporters and outlining the Trump administration’s plans for the region.

“Latin America is critical,” she said. “It’s right in our backyard. We should have strong trade relations with these countries, and we’ve seen China really step in. We must be aggressive because the Biden administration has failed, and I believe that Senator Marco Rubio will rebuild those relationships as secretary of state.”

A handler quickly whisked her away. Outside the hotel, on Macacha Guemes Boulevard, approximately a dozen protesters provided their own thoughts on U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, chanting, “¡Patria si, colonia no!” and the anti-fascist slogan, “¡No pasarán!”—“They shall not pass”—while waving national flags affixed to bamboo canes. An onlooker from the CPAC side of the divide screamed out, “Puto!”

“These meetings are deciding the fates of millions of brothers in the Global South,” the demonstration’s leader, Rafael Klejzer, told The Nation. “They are looting our lands, and [the Milei administration] is surrendering our wealth. We’re the ones exporting raw materials to the industrial North, and they sell them back to us in the form of cell phones and trinkets. That has to stop.”

Back inside, the president’s arrival was causing a commotion, with the press jockeying for position and his supporters—including Pielach and Agustina—climbing over each other to snap a pic on their phones. Around 7:30, he finally took the stage, greeting the crowd with his trademark growl of “Hello, everybody.”

For the better part of an hour, Milei played all the hits: he quoted from the Austrian American economist Ludwig von Mises; he likened his political project to that of the Maccabees during the Seleucid Empire; and he compared himself to a gladiator in Ancient Rome. In between, he revealed that he would be making an appearance on the streaming network of a far-right social media personality named “Fat Dan”—a revelation that provoked a lusty applause from the packed auditorium.

Beyond its characteristic bombast and self-aggrandizement, Milei’s speech also struck an ominous note for those willing to take him at his word. He described politics as a zero-sum contest between good and evil. He claimed that only superior strength could defeat a strong adversary and that there was no compromise or consensus to be reached with the left. More troublingly, he declared that his fellow travelers must be willing to sacrifice their lives for their cause—a perilous plea for a nascent global movement.

At the event’s conclusion, several security guards blocked off the entrance to the convention hall so the president could make his exit unencumbered. After several minutes, nervous laughter gave way to loud complaints. The guards did not budge. Finally, an older man shoved one of the officials aside, and the floodgates opened. Libertad at last.