Javier Milei, the president-elect of Argentina, is scheduled to visit the White House on Tuesday for the final leg of his whirlwind visit to America this week, but President Joe Biden will not be there.
Milei, an outsider leading a populist libertarian movement that toppled both the establishment center-right and the ruling socialist coalition in the November 19 presidential election, will instead meet with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
On Monday, Milei arrived in New Jersey and made his way to New York for a spiritual visit to the Ohel – a Jewish holy site where the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, is buried – then met with Biden Latin America adviser Christopher Dodd and former President Bill Clinton for lunch.
Argentine political experts have interpreted Milei’s meeting with Dodd and Clinton as a gesture of friendly towards Biden, who he has previously derided as a “threat to Western values.” In the same interview, occurring in August, Milei described Biden as a “left-wing” president and listed left-wing values as “envy, hatred, resentment, unequal treatment before the law, theft and murder.”
Biden waited three days to contact Milei and congratulate him on his election win, although his presidential rival, Sergio Massa, conceded the election before the results were publicly available. In a phone conversation, the White House said in a readout that Biden and Milei “discussed the importance of continuing to build on the strong relationship between the United States and Argentina on economic issues, on regional and multilateral cooperation, and on shared priorities.”
During a briefing on Monday, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Relations John Kirby said Biden would snub Milei, despite the Argentine president-elect being in the White House itself, due to previously arranged travel.
