[continued from previous message]   
      
   declined to comment. Mr. Druckenmiller said that he had no communication   
   with Mr. Bessent about Argentina before or after last month’s bailout   
   announcement.   
      
   Argentine media reported earlier on Mr. Bessent’s ties to Mr. Citrone.   
      
   Mr. Milei’s party suffered a devastating loss in a key provincial election   
   in September, and analysts are projecting that his party will face another   
   disappointing result in legislative polls later this month. Such a loss   
   would likely prevent Mr. Milei from continuing his pro-market, austerity-   
   focused plans, which Mr. Trump’s administration has praised and, in many   
   ways, replicated.   
      
   Some conservative observers were critical of Treasury’s plans to support   
   Argentina, arguing that the deal could instead end up supporting the   
   country’s leftist, pro-spending political opposition, which is likely to   
   sweep polls later this month.   
      
   Mr. Citrone and leaders of the Conservative Political Action Conference,   
   better known as CPAC, may have also been instrumental in lobbying both the   
   International Monetary Fund and Mr. Bessent to bail out Argentina,   
   according to the two people familiar with the agreement. In April, the   
   I.M.F. shored up Argentina’s economy with its own $20 billion bailout   
   agreement. The 48-month loan was Argentina’s 23rd such economic support   
   package from the fund since the 1950s.   
      
   Just days after the I.M.F. deal was announced in April, Mr. Citrone flew   
   down to Buenos Aires to meet with Mr. Milei on a plane owned by one of the   
   leaders of Tactic Global, known as CPAC’s lobbying arm, according to an   
   adviser to the Trump administration and Argentine media reports. The plane   
   was owned by Leonardo Scatturice, one of the founders of Tactic, who has   
   made a fortune off lucrative government contracts doled out by Mr. Milei’s   
   government.   
      
   Mr. Citrone met with the Argentine president just hours before Mr.   
   Bessent, who had flown separately to the country’s capital.   
      
   During that visit, Mr. Bessent announced the I.M.F. deal. Those funds are   
   intended to help Argentina loosen its currency controls while maintaining   
   the government’s plans to scale back subsidies and spending.   
      
   Last month, Mr. Bessent said the United States would provide more economic   
   support to Argentina in the form of a $20 billion financial lifeline. The   
   Treasury secretary added that Washington hoped the additional support   
   would prevent Argentina from giving up mining rights to China. Argentina’s   
   economy has largely been propped up over the years by an $18 billion   
   currency swap provided by China.   
      
   The United States has not said if there will be any guardrails to protect   
   taxpayer money. Mr. Bessent emphasized that the currency swap the   
   government plans to offer Argentina does not amount to a bailout.   
      
   “We are not putting money into Argentina,” Mr. Bessent told CNBC.   
      
   The politics of supporting Argentina has become especially fraught in the   
   United States because China has been buying soybeans from Argentine   
   farmers instead of American growers this year. The fact that Argentina is   
   the most frequent recipient of I.M.F. bailouts and also the institution’s   
   largest debtor raises questions about whether it could ever repay the   
   United States.   
      
   Image   
      
   President Javier Milei of Argentina is a close ally of President Trump,   
   and Mr. Bessent contended that shoring up the country’s finances was part   
   of maintaining U.S. strategic interests in the Western   
   Hemisphere.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times   
   “They can call it what they want, but it’s a bailout,” said Monica de   
   Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International   
   Economics. “It’s a country in crisis, it’s running out of dollars, and the   
   U.S. is giving the country dollars. That’s a bailout by definition.”   
      
   In negotiations over the terms of a support package, U.S. officials have   
   been pushing for Argentina to scale back ties with China and have been   
   seeking access to its uranium and lithium supplies, according to a person   
   familiar with the matter.   
      
   In Argentina, legislators and governors have more say in those contracts   
   than Mr. Milei does, and the U.S. Treasury’s support for the Argentine   
   president may not translate into more American companies securing mining   
   rights.   
      
   Mr. Bessent said on Thursday that bolstering Argentina is a matter of   
   national and economic security.   
      
   “The success of Argentina’s reform agenda is of systemic importance, and a   
   strong, stable Argentina which helps anchor a prosperous Western   
   Hemisphere is in the strategic interest of the United States,” Mr. Bessent   
   said.   
      
   https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/us/politics/argentina-bailout-   
   investors.html   
      
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