Argentina presents a cautionary tale for America’s children

President Trump is waging an outrageous campaign through his unelected surrogate Elon Musk to illegally defund huge portions of the federal government and dramatically pare down the federal workforce. Under the guise of “efficiency,” Musk and his minions have seized dangerous access to federal payment systems while unilaterally shutting down whole agencies without congressional approval.

What effect will this gutting of the administrative state have on children? An ominous harbinger of things to come exists in the actions over the last year by President Javier Milei of Argentina.

Like Trump, Milei ran a campaign that ostensibly focused on reining in government waste and regulatory overreach. With a flair for showmanship similar to the American president, Milei repeatedly brandished a chainsaw to vividly represent his commitment to shredding government spending.

And Milei wasted no time in implementing a punishing program of austerity disproportionately targeting the public sector. Trump praised this attack on government, called Milei his “favorite president” and hosted him at Mar-a-Lago for his first meeting with a foreign leader after winning the 2024 election. Musk lauded Milei as a “helpful model for the rest of the world.”

Milei laid out a playbook that the current administration plans to follow in the U.S. One year in, the Milei administration’s incapacitation of the Argentinian government has been a disaster for children, just as Musk’s campaign — and Trump’s economic agenda more broadly — inevitably will be.

Upon taking office, Milei slashed the number of ministries in Argentina’s federal government from 18 to nine, including relegating the Secretariat for Children, Youth and Family to a lower status. He fired at least 35,000 government employees in his first year on the job.

The Secretariat for Children, Youth and Family was among the hardest hit, losing 1,656 workers and nearly 60 percent of its budget. Milei also froze new hires in much of the public sector and cut public employee salaries.

As a result, the Argentinian government is significantly less efficient in meeting the needs of its citizens, especially children. Pediatric hospitals have been unable to replenish their workforces given hiring freezes, while supply shortages and intense financial burdens on the health workforce threaten quality of care for vulnerable children. At Garrahan Hospital, Argentina’s largest pediatric hospital, wages for medical professionals have fallen by nearly 40 percent, with staff shortages severely undermining the operation and quality of treatment.

Milei’s track record on food security and nutrition is worse still. The Argentinian government completely ended delivery of food to soup kitchens upon which many of the nation’s poor rely. Courts have ordered distribution of 5,000 tons of food that is sitting in warehouses, but the Milei government doubled down, filing numerous appeals to keep food out of the hands of the poor. Milei’s policies led to a spike in malnutrition in low-income barrios, with children being treated for eye diseases, vitamin deficiencies and scurvy.

The broader effect of across-the-board budget cuts — exactly what has been promised by Trump and Musk — and the economic downturn they delivered in Argentina has been most devastating for kids. National poverty soared to 53 percent, its highest level in 20 years. The poverty rate for children is even more dire, with 71 percent of children in Argentina falling below the poverty line, representing an additional 1.5 million kids in poverty in 2024.

American children face a similarly bleak future if Musk’s power grab, aided and abetted by Trump, continues unimpeded. Congress and the public must stand up for children here and abroad, demanding that this power-hungry Silicon Valley oligarch and his right-wing fanatics release the country from their grip.

Chris Becker is vice president of budget policy and data analytics at First Focus on Children.

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