Javier Milei

Javier Gerardo Milei , nicknamed El Loco ("the Madman") or El Peluca ("the Wig", due to his terrible hairstyle), is the Trumpian, batshit insane, anarcho-capitalist president of Argentina since 2023. He rode his way into power in the 2023 presidential elections not because he had good policies or political skills, but rather as the "lesser" of two evils for Argentinian citizens exasperated by the corrupt governments and failing economy that preceded him.
However, due to his extreme politics, Milei is part of the problem, not the solution. His victory shows a very dangerous rise in the far-right in their growing political influence in Latin America and globally as well as the broken and corrupt political systems of Latin American countries such as Argentina.Milei and the fury behind global national populism, El País, 21 November, 2023.
==Rise to power==
So, how the fuck did a rude, misogynistic, mentally unstable, Twitterholic,Fin de semana descontrolado de Milei en las redes: 1.491 likes, 754 retweets y más de 8 horas tuiteando Perfil chainsaw-wielding,Chainsaw in hand, ‘anarcho-capitalist’ Javier Milei upends Argentina’s politics, France 24, 20 November 2023. Donald Trump wannabe and self-proclaimed "tantric sex guru"Tantric Sex and Dog Cloning: A Guide to Argentina’s Trumpy New President, Rolling Stone, 20 November, 2023. who seeks advice from the spirit of his dead dog named ConanJavier Milei's dead dog told him to become Argentina president from beyond grave, The Mirror, 20 November, 2023.Argentina’s new far-right president seeks counsel from his dead dog, Pink News, 21 November, 2023. and has a more than questionable relationship with his sisterLa revelación de Milei cuando le preguntaron por su novia: "Fui muy explícito con lo que siento por mi hermana" Dario ConvosEl video viral sobre la extraña relación de Javier Milei con su hermana, Diario Registrado, 1 May, 2023. become president of Argentina?
Through most of the 21st century's first two decades, the left-wing Peronist Kirchner family and their associates governed Argentina. In 2002, after the neoliberal governments of right-wing Peronist Carlos Menem (1989–1999) and radical Fernando de la Rúa (1999–2001), which led to and a violent period of civil unrest and political instability in 2001, Argentina was in quite a dire state. Néstor Kirchner, elected in 2003, managed to get the country out of its foreign debt and brought economic growth. In 2007, Néstor was succeeded by his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who governed until 2015, the year Argentina opted to elect conservative former Buenos Aires mayor and former president of the Boca Juniors football club, Mauricio Macri, over Peronist Daniel Scioli. In 2018, Macri put Argentina in debt again with the IMF after requesting a $45 billion loan (which Macri and his accomplices, including Luis Caputo, Milei's Minister of Economy, basically stole).Massa says IMF will investigate ‘capital flight’ from US$45-billion loan, Buenos Aires Times, November 7, 2023. After Macri was defeated in 2019 by Alberto Fernández (no relation to Cristina, though she was his running mate and thus became vice-president), to get out of that debt, the Central Bank began printing more money, which unleashed monstrous inflation (around 200% per year at the end of 2023)Argentina 2023 inflation seen at 185% -cenbank poll, Investing.com, 13 November, 2023. leaving a poverty rate of over 40% in the country that was once the most prosperous in the Southern HemisphereArgentina Poverty Rate Above 40% Fuels Despair Ahead of Vote, Bloomberg News, 27 September, 2023. and eroding not only the value of the Argentine Peso, but also the government's popularity.Opinión pública sobre el presidente Alberto Fernández en Argentina en 2023, Statista, 15 October, 2023. Instead of keeping spending under control and stopping the wanton printing money, the government decided to cap prices, which of course didn't work.Argentina's rampant inflation: Will price caps work?, DW, 15 Febuary, 2023. To make matters worse, Cristina Fernández was found guilty of corruption, and sentenced to six years in prison (although due to executive immunity, she was able to finish her vice presidential term and has appealed her sentence).Argentina’s Cristina Fernández sentenced to six years in $1bn fraud case, The Guardian, 6 December, 2022. Much like another country plagued with poverty and inflation, this all led to massive political polarization among the public (and even an assassination attempt on Cristina), which in turn caused the average Argentinian flock to vote for the rambling far-right lunatic with a Messiah complex as he was a "lesser evil" in their views compared to the politicians already in charge. It probably did not help matters that the Peronists chose to field Sergio Massa — the goddamn Minister of Economy — as their candidate (as neither Alberto nor Cristina opted to run for reelection), ensuring they would be utterly decimated in the level of Walter Mondale against Ronald Reagan in the U.S. 1984 election by any opposition candidate. Yes, even by somebody as dangerous and incompetent as Milei.Argentina: Jumping Into Unchartered Territory, WOLA, 8 December, 2023.
==Extreme policies==
In the immediate time after Milei's inauguration as president, the cost of living continued to rise to unbearable levels. The common Argentine people were obviously discontent with this and began to hold demonstrations and other acts of protest, especially when the new government began to enact intense austerity measures. However, Milei's administration, despite claiming to oppose "government tyranny", decided that instead of addressing these economic hardships in the first place, to instead suppress them using police and other armed forces and to pass laws making it much easier to arrest protestors.Javier Milei’s government announces plan to crack down on Argentina protests, El País, 15 December, 2023.'Anarcho-Capitalist' President Elected in Argentina: How Did This Happen?, Politsturm, 23 December, 2023.
Milei has signed a decree allowing for contracts to be signed in Bitcoin, American currency, and milk of all things. Argentina has long had an "informal dollar economy," and Milei's decree legalizes the informal economy into a "blue dollar market."Milei’s decree legalizes signing contracts in US dollars, Bitcoin, milk, Buenos Aires Herald, 21 December, 2023.
Some of Milei's proposed policies include deregulation of rent, extreme privatization, and the termination of over seven thousand civil service contracts.Argentina court suspends Milei's 'mega-decree' labor law reforms, France 24, 4 January, 2024. Milei's proposed reforms were, unsurprisingly, blocked by an Argentine court. Milei has also devalued Argentina's currency by 50%, and has enacted huge cuts to funding for public infrastructure and transportation.
Milei wants to criminalize abortion,Milei says he’d do a referendum on abortion law if elected president, Buenos Aires Herald, 15 August, 2023. even in cases of rape.Javier Milei shakes up Argentina’s political scene, the Economist Intelligence Unit (via The Internet Archive, 10 May, 2022.
Milei has also advocated for the free trade (selling) of organs.Javier Milei planteó que la solución para la venta de órganos debe surgir del mercado, Perfil, 3 June, 2023.
Since his inauguration as president, he has engaged in a heavy crackdown against protestors and dissidents. However, his authoritarian policy was met with an even heavier and more massive protest from the people.Argentinians Defy Milei's Crackdown With Mass Protests Against Austerity, Common Dreams, 21 December, 2023.
Despite being a climate change denier,Climate denier in the Casa Rosada: Milei’s arrival puts Argentina’s environmental agenda at risk, El País, 1 December, 2023. Milei intends to stay in the Paris Agreement.Argentina will stay in Paris climate agreement under Milei: Negotiator, Reuters, 10 December, 2023.
==Incoherent ideology==
Typical for an ideologue following something as insanely contradictory as "anarcho"-capitalism, Milei has several conflicting positions and nonsensical solutions that he believes will somehow solve Argentina’s real or imagined problems.Javier Milei: New president tells Argentina 'shock treatment' looms, BBC News, 11 December, 2023.
One example of his policies is gutting social programs for the average citizen, because like most libertarians, he thinks any kind of government assistance is socialism, and therefore evil.Opinion – Javier Milei’s New Social Contract for Argentina, E-International Relations, 12 December, 2023. Except, of course, when said assistance goes to the big businesses.
==Disdain for leftists==
Perhaps one of his most infamous views that makes him such a bigoted and irredeemable piece of shit is his hatred for leftists. Milei was interviewed and had a hot mic moment where he referred to Argentinian leftists and leftists as a whole, stating “ "I hate communists, shitty left-wingers, because they hate life." He also called the entire left (yes, an entire side with various factions, ideologies, and opinions) "an economic, social and cultural failure that murdered 150 million human beings”.Original tweet. Archived here. Obviously, this was met with overwhelming praise and applause from the far right online worldwide.Javier Milei rants against leftists Reddit
He also denied that the number of people forcibly disappeared by the military dictatorship (1976–1983) was the commonly accepted 30,000, claiming it was actually a "mere" 8,753 and only due to "excesses". In his ahistorical view, the (1974–1983) was not a genocidal, US-sponsored campaign of state terrorism aimed at the systematic extermination of the Argentinian left through kidnappings, disappearances, torture, and mass murder of both revolutionaries and civilians of all ages, but a literal war in which people from both sides died. Unsurprisingly his vice-president is Victoria Villarruel, a vocal genocide denier/apologist whose father and uncle (both in the military) had been accused of human rights violations. How libertarian of him.
Milei again insulted leftists and progressives and compared them to Nazis in a deranged speech at the World Economic Forum.Oligarchs in Davos applaud fascist rant by Argentine President Milei, the International Committee of the Fourth International, 19 January, 2024.
Milei has allied with other far-right leaders like Jair Bolsonaro, saying “ I will ally with all those who believe that the left is the enemy.”, basically saying that he will ally with literal fascists and Nazis just to destroy the entire worldwide left. One wonders where he even gained this vitriolic hatred.Javier Milei, a libertarian, may be elected to Argentina’s congress Enterprise
==Religion==
 
Milei compares himself to Moses, frequently makes allusions to the Torah, is affiliated with Chabad Lubavitch (an Orthodox Jewish Zionist cult), and has a rabbi, although he hasn't converted to Judaism yet.
He infamously insulted Pope Francis both on Twitter and on live TV, calling him an "ass", "bad turd", "imbecile", "lefty son of a bitch" and "the Devil's man on Earth", among other things that would make even the edgiest New Atheist cringe. He also claimed that social justice is a sin (*cough* *cough*). However, once he became president and actually had to meet with (and embrace) the Pope at The Vatican, Milei cynically backpedaled and described himself as a "Catholic" who also practices "a little Judaism".
Because of this, as well as his radical deregulation policy which seeks to eliminate a law that prohibits foreign businesses or persons from owning more than 15% of Argentine lands, Milei is a frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy theories. He has been accused by the far-right, ultranationalist wing of Peronism of being an agent of international Zionism whose end goal is the fulfillment of the fabled –a conspiracy theory according to which (((They))) plan to pull a Nakba in southern Chile and Argentina in order to establish a Jewish state in Patagonia (apparently these guys have been living in a bunker since 1945 and haven't heard of this thing called "Israel"). As if there weren't hundreds of actual, valid reasons to consider Milei a heartless sack of dog shit.
Needless to say, Milei is a hardcore Zionist. He probably loves Israel more than his own country, genocide or not.¿Milei antipatria? El libertario fue escrachado en redes con un viejo video, Agencia NOVA, 11 July, 2023.
==Relations with global far-right==
After winning the Argentinian presidential election, Milei was praised by fellow fascists across the world, including Donald Trump in the United States and Giorgia Meloni in Italy. His presidential win has been noted as one of many cases of the phenomena of the growing influence of the far right and fascism in global politics.The Rise of the Far Right Is a Global Phenomenon, In These Times, 21 November, 2023.Far-Right Extremism Is a Global Problem Foreign Policy
==Public health disaster==
Not even cancer patients have been spared from the "chainsaw". Immediately after taking power, Milei cut medicine assistance programs for patients with cancer and other expensive medical conditions, costing the lives of dozens of people.Saving Money, Costing Lives: The Faces of Argentina’s Health Care Cuts Global Press Journal, 20 May, 2024La ‘motosierra’ de Javier Milei se ensaña con los enfermos graves, El País, 5 May, 2024 The decision has been criticized as "perverse" and "criminal" by healthcare professionals.Pacientes oncológicos denunciaron que el Gobierno frenó el envío de medicamentos Página/12, 19 February, 2024
In the summer of 2024, a biblical invasion of mosquitoes caused the worst dengue epidemic in Argentina's recent history. However, free market fundamentalist Milei refused to carry out a national prevention campaign, did not include the dengue vaccine in the official immunization schedule, and even questioned its effectiveness.Milei deja la atención sanitaria al libre mercado en la peor epidemia de dengue El Diario, 7 April, 2024Javier Milei no quiere vacunar contra el dengue Página/12, 12 April, 2024
In February 2025, two weeks after Donald Trump anounced that the US would exit the World Health Organization, Argentina's Trump clone decided to do the same.Javier Milei announces Argentina to leave World Health Organization The Guardian, 5 February, 2025
==Crypto scammer==
On Valentine's Day 2025, Milei decided to fuck his fans posted a tweet recommending his cultists buy the crypto token $LIBRA (a meme coin, not a cryptocurrency), which within hours crashed and became worthless. Hundreds, if not thousands, of basement-dwelling suckers around the world who followed his advice lost their life savings.El influencer estadounidense Ape señaló que perdió su fortuna tras ver el posteo de Milei (video) However, "Ponzident Pyramilei" refused to take responsibility for his role in the scam. Instead, he simply deleted the endorsement, claimed he "wasn't aware of the project's details", and blamed the opposition like the good libertarian manchild he is.Argentine President Milei promotes crypto scam, then deletes endorsement. Merco Press, 15 February 2025.Patrick Gillespie and Ignacio Olivera Doll, Milei Pushes Crypto Token, Then Deletes Post Amid Fears of Scam. Archived from Bloomberg, 15 February 2025.
==See also==
*Naomi Klein § The Shock Doctrine
*Donald Trump, who has similarly awful hair and definitely nothing else in common
*Jair Bolsonaro
*Nayib Bukele
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Ableism
Category:Alt-lite
Category:Anti-abortion activists
Category:Anti-LGBT bigots
Category:Antifeminism
Category:Anti-intellectualism
Category:Argentina
Category:Austrian school
Category:Catholics
Category:Christians
Category:Conservative deceit
Category:Conspiracy theorists
Category:Cult leaders
Category:Culture wars
Category:Denialists
Category:Economists
Category:Ethnic entrepreneurs
Category:Fascists
Category:Financial fraud
Category:Global warming denialists
Category:Government incompetence
Category:Gun nuts
Category:Homophobes
Category:Internet kooks
Category:Islamophobes
Category:Jews
Category:Libertarians
Category:Living people
Category:Machismo
Category:Plagiarists
Category:Pseudohistory promoters
Category:Right-wing activists
Category:Sexists
Category:Shysters
Category:South American politicians
Category:Transphobes
Category:Trolls
Category:We're on a mission from God