As Argentina Spirals Into Crisis, Trump’s $20 Billion Lifeline Sparks Backlash at Home

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s decision to extend a $20 billion, no-strings-attached financial lifeline to Argentina has ignited a bipartisan uproar in Washington and deepened anxiety across America’s already-strained farm belt, where soybean growers say they are being pushed to the brink by the president’s own trade policies.

The bailout arrives as President Javier Milei — the libertarian firebrand once hailed by conservative leaders in the United States — confronts a collapsing currency, soaring inflation and weakening political support ahead of Argentina’s midterm elections. Having defaulted on its sovereign debt nine times, the country is no stranger to financial turmoil. But Milei’s aggressive austerity program, designed to halt hyperinflation, has triggered political backlash at home and raised doubts among global investors, prompting a run on the peso and forcing the government to seek emergency support.

“This is not like the Mexican peso crisis or the contagion we saw in Asia,” said Edward Luce, U.S. national editor of the Financial Times. “This is a crisis in one country — and the administration chose to treat it like a geopolitical emergency.”

The White House has framed the decision as a matter of economic stability. But critics argue the president’s motivations are largely political: Mr. Milei has cultivated unusually close ties with MAGA-aligned Republicans, appearing at conservative conferences and presenting Elon Musk with a ceremonial chainsaw symbolizing his plan to slash government spending.

More significantly, analysts say the bailout protects a number of American hedge funds heavily invested in Argentina’s recovery — financial players with close relationships to senior Trump administration officials.

For farmers in the American Midwest and South, however, the political calculus is far less abstract. Scott Brown, a soybean farmer from Arkansas, says the bailout has accelerated the collapse of his own industry, already staggering after China stopped purchasing U.S. soybeans in retaliation for President Trump’s tariffs.

In recent months, China has shifted billions of dollars in soybean orders to Argentina and Brazil. After receiving the U.S. lifeline, Argentina temporarily suspended export tariffs on grains — a move that made its soybeans cheaper on the global market and prompted China to purchase more than a dozen shiploads at a premium price.

“I woke up one morning and found out my own government gave $20 billion to my competition,” Mr. Brown said. “Argentina gets a tax holiday, China buys from them, and my price drops. How is that America First?”

The administration has offered domestic relief funds to farmers, but many say the aid is insufficient and delayed by the ongoing federal shutdown, which has closed local agriculture offices and prevented farmers from securing insurance and planting loans.

“We don’t want aid — we want trade,” Mr. Brown said. “But we can’t even get the aid now.”

Beyond the economic fallout, political tensions are simmering. Farm communities that helped deliver Mr. Trump to the White House are increasingly alarmed, with bankers warning of declining land values and equipment prices reminiscent of the 1980s farm crisis.

“This is the pattern,” said Senator Jon Tester of Montana. “The president promises farmers they’ll benefit from tariffs and tough talk. Instead, they get undercut while he sends billions overseas.”

As Argentina braces for elections that could decide the fate of Mr. Milei’s experiment, the political costs are landing much closer to home. The president’s attempt to stabilize a foreign ally has exposed a widening fracture in his own base — one that may prove more difficult to repair than any bailout can solve.