Jess Bidgood writes:

The music was booming. The ballroom was packed. And Elon Musk was onstage, waving a chain saw in the air.

I had already seen other surreal sights at the Conservative Political Action Conference — a man with a cat on his shoulder, freshly pardoned Proud Boys roaming around — but it was clear that this would be one of the indelible images of the annual MAGA confab.

Musk roared — or was he just making a chain saw noise? This, he said, was the chain saw he was taking to the bureaucracy. “Chain saw,” he repeated for effect. He did not turn it on.

It was a gift from Javier Milei, the far-right Argentine president who stormed to power in 2023 and who has drawn effusive, at times almost graphic, praise from Musk.

The episode showed how Musk doesn’t just cozy up to right-wing leaders — he also seems to copy them.

In 2022, Milei, an economist and former media personality, released a “chain saw plan” that would have cut public spending and sharply reduced the number of ministries in Argentina’s government. Milei showed up to campaign rallies with a functioning chain saw — and his supporters followed suit with replicas — that represented his demonization of a group he called “the political caste.”

Once Milei took office, Musk showered him with online compliments and talked business with him behind closed doors, as my colleagues wrote last year. He has done the same with right-wing leaders in India and Brazil, in a convenient marriage of his political beliefs and his desire to make more money for his companies.

And Musk has made a point of talking up Milei’s approach to government cuts, calling them “awesome” in a January post on X and praising Milei for “deleting entire departments.” He’s now calling for the United States government to do the same. [Continue reading…]

In December, CNN reported:

Javier Milei swept to power in Argentina a year ago on a ticket to tackle chronic hyperinflation and overhaul the long-suffering economy. In one regard — slashing the size of the state — he has proven so successful that Donald Trump’s government efficiency tsars want to replicate his approach.

Under the chainsaw-wielding libertarian economist, the government has posted rare consecutive monthly budget surpluses and inflation has fallen sharply — “better-than-expected results,” according to the International Monetary Fund.

During a meeting with Milei at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last month, Trump said Milei had done “a fantastic job” as president.

Investors have also cheered the changes in Argentina: Its flagship Merval stock index, which tracks around two dozen of the country’s most valuable listed companies, has soared almost 140% this year.

But the budget cuts have come at a cost to ordinary Argentines. The poverty rate has jumped above 50% from an already high level, the economy, the third largest in Latin America, has slid even deeper into recession and unemployment is on the rise. [Continue reading…]

The Guardian reports:

Opposition politicians in Argentina have called for the impeachment of President Javier Milei after he touted a cryptocurrency which quickly collapsed and reportedly led to millions of dollars in losses this weekend.

Milei endorsed the little-known cryptocurrency token $Libra on Friday evening, announcing on X that the project was “dedicated to boosting the growth of the Argentinian economy by funding small businesses and entrepreneurs”. His post linked to a website where the digital coin could be bought, the domain name of which included Milei’s popular catchphrase “long live freedom”.

“The world wants to invest in Argentina,” Milei added in the post to his more than 3.8 million followers.

The token immediately soared in value, from almost zero at the time of its launch to nearly $5, before plummeting to under $1, according to trading sites. Argentina’s fintech chamber said that the case could amount to a “rug pull” – a scam which sees cryptocurrency rapidly inflated, or “pumped”, before crashing while insiders “dump” their stake, making the tokens worthless. Other economists and crypto specialists said the digital asset could be a fraud or Ponzi scheme.

Milei deleted his post hours later, saying he was “not aware of the details of the project”, but the scandal has nonetheless sparked a political firestorm, and the federal prosecutor’s office will reportedly now examine whether the president engaged in fraud or criminal association or was in breach of his duties. [Continue reading…]

Deutsche Welle reports:

It’s been just over a year since the far-right, chainsaw-wielding 54-year-old was elected President of Argentina, and society is more divided than ever before.

Argentina’s poverty rate has soared to over 50% since Javier Milei took office. Many young voters opted for Milei because they wanted a radical break from the previous government. Many Argentinians in the business community are also hoping Milei’s “shock therapy” will improve the economic situation – while others are stunned by the president’s harsh reforms.

In his first year in office, Milei did not hold back, abolishing many ministries, scaling back publicly funded media and cutting many subsidies. We hear from both supporters and opponents of the president and his policies, including farmers, students, pensioners, trade unionists, journalists and entrepreneurs.