Milei cut 10 government agencies, fired 34,000 public employees, and cut spending by 30 percent—and the Trump transition team is taking notice.
On his first anniversary as president of Argentina, Javier Milei announced the initial results of his relentless campaign to cut government spending, eliminate regulations, and pare back the country’s administrative state.
“Today, with pride and hope, I can tell you that we have passed the test of fire,” Milei told Argentinians last week. “We are leaving the desert, the recession is over, and the country has finally begun to grow.”
When Milei took office in November 2023, Argentina, once one of the world’s 10 richest countries, was in a dysfunctional state. Having defaulted on its sovereign debt three times since 2001, it was on track to do it again.
Its annual inflation rate was approaching 200 percent, its poverty rate was above 40 percent, its growth rate was negative 1.6 percent, its fiscal deficit was 15 percent of GDP, and it was running a chronic trade deficit.
Argentinians wanted change and voted the self-proclaimed libertarian into office with the largest majority a presidential candidate has received since free elections were reinstated in 1983, taking 55.7 percent of the vote over his opponent, incumbent economy minister Sergio Massa, who received 44.3 percent.
Over the past year, Milei eliminated 10 of Argentina’s 18 government ministries, capped the salaries of top bureaucrats, and fired 34,000 public employees, cutting government spending by 30 percent.
After the U.S. election in November, Milei was the first foreign leader to meet with Trump, and members of the incoming Trump administration are tracking Milei’s progress.
“A reasonable formula to fix the U.S. government: Milei-style cuts, on steroids,” Vivek Ramaswamy, co-head of the soon-to-be-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), stated on social media platform X.
Out of the Blocks
Upon taking office, Milei’s administration operated as if it were in a race against time, scrambling to deliver some sign of a brighter future before voters’ patience ran out.
During his first month in office, Milei issued a “mega-decree” that included 366 regulatory reforms, according to a report by Cato political analyst Ian Vasquez and Human Freedom Index co-author Guillermina Sutter Schneider.
