Argentina's leader, an inspiration for DOGE, got a hero's welcome in DC ahead of Trump taking office

• Argentina's Javier Milei was pictured with people close to Donald Trump at events over the weekend.
• Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Kari Lake, and Roger Stone praised the Argentine president.
• His government has brought inflation down, but its approaches have also triggered a recession.

Javier Milei was the talk of Trumpworld in the days leading up to Donald Trump's inauguration.

Videos and pictures captured over the weekend showed Argentina's firebrand president rubbing shoulders with — and receiving praise from — some of those close to the president-elect, at events held in Washington, DC.

Milei was welcomed with a standing ovation and a round of applause at the Official Hispanic Inaugural Ball on Saturday, which celebrates the achievements and impact of US Hispanics.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the cohead of DOGE, who introduced him at the event, described Milei as "a man who knows how to DOGE & how to MAGA."

The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is a new commission that aims to slash federal spending and cut regulations.

On Sunday, Michael Milken, chairman of the non-partisan economic think tank Milken Institute, also welcomed Milei at the Center for Advancing the American Dream as the event's "very first" speaker and for "shining a light not just Argentina but the world today."

Milken was pardoned by Trump in 2020. He had served 22 months in prison for insider trading in the 1990s and has become a prominent philanthropist.

Later that same day, Milei was pictured with Kari Lake, the Voice of America director-designate who lost the Arizona Senate last year, at the 1775 Gala.

"So blessed to speak with Argentina's incredible President @JMilei at the 1775 Gala — as we celebrate 250 years of faith and freedom!" she wrote.

Since assuming office in December 2023, Milei has overseen a decline in inflation in Argentina, but his sweeping cost-cutting policies have also triggered a recession.

Milei fired tens of thousands of public employees, shut down half the country's 18 ministries, and cut state spending by an estimated 31% in his first 10 months in office.

Partly as a result, Argentina's headline inflation rate dropped from 25.5% in December 2023 to 2.4% in November 2024 — the lowest it had been in over four years.

However, Facundo Nejamkis, director of Opina Argentina, a political consultancy firm, told Reuters in December that the cuts had ignited a "major" recession.

And Argentinians' purchasing power has eroded to record lows, with the real minimum wage falling by 30%, according to a December report by the Interdisciplinary Institute of Political Economy at the University of Buenos Aires' Economics Faculty.

Even so, Milei's policies have received praise and attention from some in Republican circles, due to his sweeping cost-cutting measures.

Elon Musk and Ramaswamy, the co-leaders of DOGE, have, in particular, praised Milei.

In fact, Musk repeatedly praised Milei on X over the weekend, saying once in Spanish that, "I love @JMilei."

As Business Insider previously reported, Ramaswamy and Musk have scaled back their goal of cutting $2 trillion from US federal spending by the time the commission disbands, no later than July 4, 2026, but have still floated a slate of reforms, from deleting agencies to firing federal employees.

Milei was also photographed with former Trump advisor Roger Stone, who, in an X post on Sunday, said, "I worked for Ronald Reagan, I worked for Donald Trump—and now, I have met 'El León,'" referring to Milei as "The Lion."