Who
Gained From U.S. Aid to Argentina?
Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessent said stabilizing the country was in the United States’s
interests. Critics say some investors may have also benefited.
By Andrew
Ross SorkinBernhard WarnerSarah KesslerMichael J. de la Merced and Niko
Gallogly
Published
Oct. 10, 2025
Updated
Oct. 11, 2025
Critics
of the U.S. financial lifeline to Argentina said that it would help financiers
with ties to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Pushback
against a U.S. lifeline for Buenos Aires
America
has finally come to Argentina’s rescue, as the Trump administration aims to
stabilize the embattled South American country’s economy and help out Javier
Milei, the Argentine leader and an ally of President Trump.
But
critics of the move note ties between investors in Argentinian assets and Trump
officials, and they have raised concerns that the administration is extending
the aid during the U.S. government shutdown.
The
details: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the U.S. directly purchased
Argentine pesos amid a run on the currency that forced Buenos Aires to spend
billions of dollars to counteract it. Bessent added that the U.S. had also
“finalized a $20 billion currency swap framework” with the Argentine central
bank, though more information hasn’t been released.
Bessent
said that the move was in the U.S.’s strategic interest by creating a strong,
stable Argentina to help “anchor a prosperous Western Hemisphere.” Others point
out that the country has significant supplies of minerals like lithium and
copper that are crucial for U.S. and global manufacturing.
The
package comes as relief for big global investors who have made bets on
Argentina, many of whom bought up government debt on the cheap in hopes that it
will be repaid or renegotiated, The Times notes. Among them:
Funds at
money managers including BlackRock, Fidelity and Pimco. One Fidelity vehicle
this summer credited returns from its Argentine bet with helping compensate for
losses in other emerging-market countries.
Stan
Druckenmiller, who mentored Bessent at Soros Fund Management. A government
filing in June of this year indicated that the Duquesne family office, which
Druckenmiller runs, was the second-largest investor in Argentina’s principal
exchange-traded fund, a pool of Argentine stocks.
Robert
Citrone, who founded Discovery Capital Management and who has claimed credit
for persuading George Soros and Bessent to bet against the Japanese yen in
2013, a hugely profitable investment. Citrone had been in touch with Bessent in
the lead-up to Bessent’s announcement last month that the U.S. would help
Argentina, arguing that a peso crash would hurt Milei politically, The Times
reports.
The move
has drawn political blowback for the Trump administration. While Bessent has
argued that the U.S. wouldn’t bail out Argentina, skeptics said the move is
exactly that. “It’s a country in crisis, it’s running out of dollars, and the
U.S. is giving the country dollars,” Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the
Peterson Institute for International Economics, told The Times. “That’s a
bailout by definition.”
A group
of Democratic senators on Thursday introduced legislation meant to prevent the
Treasury Department from using a special fund to help Argentina. (It’s unlikely
to pass.)
“It is
inexplicable that President Trump is propping up a foreign government, while he
shuts down our own,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who helped
draft the legislation. “Trump promised ‘America First,’ but he’s putting
himself and his billionaire buddies first and sticking Americans with the
bill.”
And as
we’ve written before, American soybean farmers have grumbled about aid for
Argentina, which has sold more than 2.5 metric tons of soybeans to China as
Beijing halts its purchases from the U.S. (The Trump administration has said it
will offer help to American farmers.)
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