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MAKE ARGENTINA GREAT AGAIN?
Trump’s foreign policy shenanigans are causing pain and confusion for red-state farmers and ranchers. The howls of protest from the right are growing louder.
Everyone has one loyal friend they can call when they’re in a bind and their luck’s run out. For Argentina’s MAGA-loving President Javier Milei, that buddy is President Donald Trump, who scraped together $20 billion (or maybe $40 billion [ [link removed] ]) to rescue the far-right leader’s economy from collapse — despite the U.S. government shutdown. The bailout paid off: Milei, the chainsaw-welding [ [link removed] ], mutton-chop sporting, libertarian eccentric, won re-election in a landslide today.
Trump cheered. But key members of his farm-state Republican base are baffled — and pissed off. Saving Milei meant throwing U.S. money at foreign farmers and ranchers, at a moment when American soybean growers and beef producers are complaining bitterly about the competition. Outrage is building over a U.S. plan to buy 80,000 metric tons of beef from Argentina — four times the normal amount — in part to lower beef prices in grocery stores. The big MAGA beef over beef is only getting meatier.
“Why the actual FUCK would we buy Argentinian beef?” MAGA influencer Tomi Lahren tweeted [ [link removed] ] last week. “Our AMERICAN ranchers are getting crushed already by cheap shit foreign beef imports. The meat packers are already under cutting our AMERICAN producers as it is. This is an OUTRAGE.”
But wait, it gets worse. The Trump bailout helped Argentina suspend its export tax on soybeans. China pounced, buying up 7 million metric tons [ [link removed] ] of the produce… because Trump’s tariff war made American soybeans too expensive. China bought zero soybeans from the U.S. this summer and has no future orders. The result: American farmers are hurting.
“We’re pulling money out of our retirement savings,” Wisconsin soybean farmer Phil Verges told the What A Day [ [link removed] ] podcast [ [link removed] ]. “That’s difficult because we’re in the years where we want to be putting more away so we can prepare for retirement. ... If I were 10 years younger, I would probably be in a situation of seriously considering stopping farming and having to find a job off the farm.”
Trump is hoping a soybean deal [ [link removed] ] with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week will fix the damage. In plain English, he’s trying to solve the problem he created… by backing down.
Trump’s team is hailing the framework of a trade deal recently reached with Beijing. The details remain hazy. But the terms suggest China will buy more American soybeans and pause export controls on rare-earth minerals. In other words… U.S.-China trade relations look set to go right back to where they were before Trump kicked off this big dumb trade war in the first place.
What is really going on? As always with Trump, it’s hard to be sure where the chaos stops, and the corrupt self-dealing begins. There’s speculation that Trump’s team, led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, bailed out Argentina to help wealthy [ [link removed] ] fund managers — many of whom are Bessent’s friends. For instance, BlackRock, Fidelity and Pimco have major investments in Argentina. If the economy collapsed, so would their investments.
What’s more, Trump now has Milei wrapped around his finger. “He likes flatterers and mimics, and that might be the best explanation for this bailout,” Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at the Stimson Center, told What A Day. “That said, the White House will likely now push for preferential treatment for U.S. mining companies eyeing Argentina’s lithium, copper, and uranium, and Argentina will no doubt be urged to reevaluate its relationship with China.”
Who will draw the short straw: Trump’s rich buddies, his Argentinian ally, or down-on-their-luck American farmers? Something tells me that however this shakes out, the rich and powerful won’t be the ones left to suffer.
WHAT ELSE?
Donald Trump said that he “would love” [ [link removed] ] a third term as president. But he ruled out one potential route to try and sidestep the Constitution’s ban on winning a third presidential election: Running as VP and then pulling a switcheroo to the top job. “It’s too cute. I think the people wouldn’t like that,” he told reporters. So, do you have another plan to seize a third term that is less, uh, “cute,” Mr. President???!
Trump received a “perfect” MRI scan during his recent visit [ [link removed] ] to the Walter Reed hospital, he told reporters. He didn’t say why he got one, or why it wasn’t disclosed before. Ah yes, the precautionary MRI. Very common! Nothing to see here. He must be super-duper healthy.
The Trump administration warned that federal food aid [ [link removed] ] will halt on November 1, due to the government shutdown. “Bottom line, the well has run dry … We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats,” reads a notice on the Department of Agriculture website. So cool when a hyper-politicized USDA warns that opposition to the regime could be hazardous to your health.
On that note, the federal workers’ union [ [link removed] ] called for an end to the government shutdown. “It’s time for our leaders to start focusing on how to solve problems for the American people, rather than on who is going to get the blame for a shutdown that Americans dislike,” AFGE President Everett Kelley wrote in a statement.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and former [ [link removed] ] Vice President Kamala Harris both hinted at running for president in 2028 over the weekend. Newsom said he’ll make a decision after the 2026 midterms (although, let’s face it, this guy has basically been running for president for years…) and Harris said that she could “possibly” be president one day.
The mystery donor who splashed out $130 million [ [link removed] ] to pay troops — about $100 per service member — during the shutdown is Timothy Mellon, an heir to a Gilded Age banking family. His estimated net worth is $1 billion, but Mellon denied that in an email to Forbes last year: “Billionaire NOT! ... Never have been, never will be.” Who does he think he is, Borat [ [link removed] ]?
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi floated [ [link removed] ] an idea to curry Trump’s favor during his trip to Asia: Buying a fleet of Ford F-150 trucks. “She has good taste,” Trump told reporters. “That’s a hot truck.” Here’s the catch: Those trucks might be impractical for Japan, given the narrow streets in its cities.
The “First Buddy” is back: [ [link removed] ] Trump and Elon Musk have been talking “on and off” in recent weeks, the president told reporters. “I’ve always liked Elon,” Trump said. “He had a bad spell. He had a bad moment. But I like Elon, and I suspect I’ll always like him.”
A U.S. Navy helicopter and a fighter jet both crashed [ [link removed] ] independently within 30 minutes of each other in the South China Sea. Trump described the incidents as “very unusual,” and said, “they think it might be bad fuel.” No one was injured. It’s the fourth $60 million fighter jet the Navy has lost within a year. But don’t worry, War Secretary Pete Hegseth wants generals to lose weight and do more pushups, so this will all be fine.
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE EMAIL…
Iranian women are increasingly flouting [ [link removed] ] the country’s law requiring them to cover their hair or dress modestly in public. Such behavior is still against the law, but Iranian officials are worried about widespread public backlash if they enforce it.
Private donors have raised more than $125 million [ [link removed] ] for critical aid programs abroad in the eight months since the Trump administration gutted USAID.
A New Hampshire man who received a gene-edited [ [link removed] ] pig kidney transplant 271 days ago is resuming dialysis, helping researchers who study animal-to-human transplants.
Japanese sushi legend Jiro Ono is pledged [ [link removed] ] to keep going strong, even as he turned 100 years old today. While he can’t visit his 10-seat sushi restaurant in Tokyo everyday, “I try to work if possible. I believe the best medicine is to work.” *Sigh* Buckle in folks, I’ll still be writing this newsletter for a while…
There are some things humans simply can’t do, [ [link removed] ] like hover in the air with a camera. That’s where drones come in: The Siena awards, a global competition honoring drone photographers, recently unveiled its winners, and the photos are absolutely stunning.
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