Bailing out Bessent's Buddies' Bets on Argentina
Trump bails out hedge funds’ failed bets on Milei while his foreign aid cuts will kill millions of children
Paul Krugman
Oct 09, 2025
The Trump administration really hates giving foreign aid that serves any kind of humanitarian purpose. They are clearly unmoved by the fact that that they may be responsible for the preventable deaths of millions of children in impoverished countries.
And to be crass, it isn’t even in the strategic interests of the United States to withdraw critically needed aid to impoverished countries. For example, we are abandoning the entire continent of Africa, with billions of people and enormous deposits of critical resources, to China.
But a $20 billion lifeline to the right-wing government of Argentina, which has no strategic value to the US and has a decades-long history of corruption, unstable politics, fiscal mismanagement and financial crises? A country that has defaulted nine times on its sovereign debt, three times since 2001? No problem!
Two weeks ago I wrote about Scott Bessent’s plan to aid Argentina, saying “This is about ideology and Trumpian fealty, not America’s interests.” I have since learned that what I said was true but incomplete, because I was insufficiently cynical. Mea culpa.
Cont'd
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulkrugman/p/bailing-out-bessents-buddies-bets