Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement in light of President Trump’s meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei to announce the United States’ bailout to the government of Argentina. The U.S. Department of the Treasury—whose international activities and any use of the Exchange Stabilization Fund—are overseen by the House Financial Services Committee, has yet to share the terms and conditions of this deal to allow Congress and the public to understand what impact this will have on American taxpayers.

“Today, while several million federal government workers are set to miss their paychecks and millions of American families are watching their health care premiums skyrocket, Donald Trump hosted the President of Argentina for lunch at the White House to announce a U.S. government bailout of Argentina.

Ironically, while the President has time to meet with foreign leaders, he refuses to sit down with Democratic lawmakers in his own country to resolve his Trump-Republican government shutdown, now entering its third week. Instead of re-opening the government, Trump is prioritizing a foreign financial bailout, in part, to prop up an ideological ally in a coming election.

This deal is being done without a vote from Congress and with zero transparency from the Trump Administration to understand what this means for American taxpayers. What we do know is that Trump’s donors and Treasury Secretary Bessent’s friends made terrible bets buying up Argentina’s debt, but now will see windfalls because of the Trump bailout.

Adding insult to injury, while Wall Street executives get even richer, President Trump is delivering another slap in the face to hardworking American families and farmers: Argentina followed the news of the Trump billion-dollar bailout to announce it is selling its soybeans to China, displacing sales American farmers had until Trump started a trade war. It is beyond the pale that Trump refuses to address the rising costs of millions of Americans’ health care even as he spends tens of billions of dollars to bailout Argentina and his buddies on Wall Street.”

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