Donald Trump expected to meet Argentine President Milei at Mar-a-Lago
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to meet with Argentine President Javier Milei on Thursday at his Florida estate.
Milei is attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) summit, which will take place at Trump's private Palm Beach club over the next few days.
On Thursday morning, the Argentine president reshared a post on X, formerly Twitter, announcing his plans to attend the Mar-a-Lago gathering and he would meet with Trump during the event.
During a phone call, Trump referred to Milei as his "favorite president," a spokesman for the South American leader said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
The two leaders have previously expressed their admiration for each other, and a person familiar with Trump's schedule said the president-elect would greet Milei during the visit but provided no additional details.
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Milei is a far-right libertarian politician who was elected president of his country last November. An economist and television pundit who has been compared to Trump, he entered politics in 2021 after railing against Argentina's "political caste." As president, he promised to tackle the country's soaring inflation and announced plans to eliminate 15,000 government jobs last spring.
According to Reuters, Milei was also expected to meet with Telsa CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who was recently appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump announced that DOGE will partner with and provide outside counsel to the White House's long-established Office of Management and Budget.
This marks the first known in-person meeting between Trump and a world leader since the former president's political comeback in last week's election. Other leaders have expressed interest in meeting with the new administration including Indonesia's newly inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto, who was in Washington on Tuesday to meet with outgoing President Joe Biden. In a video of a call with Trump that Subianto shared publicly, he requested a meeting with the president-elect.
Trump also returned to the White House on Wednesday this week for a meeting with Biden, who is traveling to Lima this week for a gathering of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Biden heads to Brazil afterward for the annual Group of 20 Summit, where he will make his final appearance at the gathering before leaving office in January.
Since winning last week's presidential election, over 80 foreign leaders have rushed to contact Trump, according to someone familiar with the situation.
Milei's visit to the U.S. coincides with a summit for investors at CPAC that is taking place Thursday through Saturday at Mar-a-Lago.
Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump expected to meet Argentina's right-wing president at Mar-a-Lago