US President Donald Trump, known for his vindictiveness, may support Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands as a favor to President Javier Milei and as revenge against Britain. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
At the 2023 CPAC conference, Trump declared, "I am your retribution." It is unlikely Argentina or far-flung remnants of the British Empire were on his mind then. But events of the past three and a half years have turned Trump's vengeful mindset to the advantage of Javier Milei, the boisterous right-wing Argentine president.
On Thursday, Milei addressed Argentines on television, stating his intention to revive his country's claim to a group of windswept islands in the South Atlantic, known as the Falklands to Britain and the Malvinas to Argentina. The centuries-old sovereignty dispute has lain dormant since 1982, when Argentina's military dictatorship invaded the islands, sparking a brief but bloody conflict.
Britain reclaimed them after troops sent by then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, ironically lionized by Milei as a political exemplar, stormed the territory and forced Argentina's surrender. An uneasy peace has prevailed since, though Argentina, which returned to democracy the year after the conflict, has never renounced its claim, despite the insistence of the islands' fewer than 2,000 inhabitants that they remain British.
This week, Trump suggested he is reconsidering US support for British sovereignty over the Falklands. This amounts to a review of the US's longstanding neutral stance, which de facto recognized British control.
Fueling Trump's animus is grievance that Britain under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer declined to support his decision to go to war on Iran. The president's obsession that allies didn't help him in a war he never consulted them on runs deep, from Westminster to Seoul, and could upend US relationships globally.
In an interview with right-wing British channel GB News on Thursday, Trump said, "Your country was not there to help me. We didn't need help, but I did ask Nato, and I asked your former leader, 'Why don't you send a couple of ships?' He said, 'We don't have any.' It was pretty sad, the whole thing."
Milei's opportunism could also be used by Trump as a bargaining chip to lever more money from the UK for defense spending and Nato contributions, after new Chancellor John Healey suggested the UK might not meet increased spending targets.
This is a sorry pass for the "special relationship," but Britain is hardly alone. Trump's vengeance has targeted numerous allies recently. Annual joint military exercises with South Korea were scaled down and cut short by six days last month because Seoul declined to join the fight against Iran. He has threatened to bomb Oman if it impedes reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The White House announced withdrawal of 5,000 US troops from Germany after Chancellor Friedrich Merz rebuffed pressure to join the Iran conflict. Threats have also been aimed at Spain and Italy.
Milei, a self-styled "anarcho-capitalist," remains in Trump's good graces. Last year, the administration extended his government a $20bn loan guarantee to stabilize Argentina's economy, but conditioned on Milei's party winning congressional elections, which it did.
This time there are no guarantees, only endless turbulence from Trump. Such rough currents may be the "winds of change" Milei referenced in his speech, but he may not know the phrase's historical significance.