SlateStone Wealth Chief Market Strategist Kenny Polcari discusses Argentina’s currency crisis as President Donald Trump offers a financial lifeline on “The Big Money Show.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hit back at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., defending the Trump administration’s decision to provide Argentina with a $20 billion currency swap line with Argentina’s central bank earlier in October.
Bessent’s response came after Warren issued a letter expressing concerns and demanding answers about why the Trump administration was moving forward in providing a financial lifeline to Argentina as the economy struggles, especially during the U.S. government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hit back at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., defending the Trump administration’s decision to offer Argentina a $20 billion currency swap line. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Bessent then accused Warren of “Peronist views,” a reference to Argentina’s former president Juan Perón, and of Peronism, an ideology that advocates that the government should have control over the national economy, according to the State Department’s Office of the Historian.
“It is little surprise – given your Peronist views on big government and freedom – that these types of actions cause you great anxiety,” Bessent said.
CNN first reported the letter.
Warren fired back at Bessent on Wednesday, saying Trump was more focused on helping an “ideological ally” than addressing America’s problems during the shutdown.
“Ultimately, President Trump appears uninterested in meaningfully addressing our country’s pressing problems that are indeed ‘mission critical,’” Warren said in a new letter on Wednesday. “Instead, during a government shutdown, his administration is working on direct purchases of foreign currency — helping an ideological ally, billionaire investors and major hedge funds, while American farmers and workers miss paychecks and face rising costs for basic necessities.”
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and the top Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, introduced the No Argentina Bailout Act in October. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, introduced the No Argentina Bailout Act in October. The measure would prevent the Trump administration from using the Treasury Department’s Exchange Stabilization Fund, which provides financing to foreign governments, to help Argentina.
Bessent announced on October 9 that the Treasury Department would enter into a currency exchange agreement with Argentina’s central bank.
The move was made in an effort to stabilize the peso by exchanging it for U.S. dollars, and Bessent said in a social media post that the U.S. “stands immediately prepared to take any exceptional measures warranted to provide stability to the markets.”
Since then, Bessent Argentina has issued another $20 billion in financing, using sovereign wealth funds and those of private banks.
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President Donald Trump greets President of Argentina Javier Milei upon his arrival at the West Wing of the White House on October 14, 2025 in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/Getty Images)
“We are working on a $20 billion facility that would complement our swap line, with private banks and sovereign wealth funds that, in my view, would be more focused on the debt market,” Bessent said on Oct. 16.
President Donald Trump and President Javier Millei of Argentina have had a warm relationship since Trump came to power. For example, Milei was the first foreign head of state Trump visited after the 2024 elections.
