Argentine President Javier Milei, a libertarian and vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, issued a statement in support of the 2024 presidential election frontrunner following an assassination attempt against him on Saturday evening, blaming the “international left” for the violence.
“All my support and solidarity to the president and candidate Donald Trump, victim of a COWARDLY assassination attempt that put at risk his life and those of hundreds of people,” Milei wrote in an extended message on Twitter.
Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday evening when a shooter opened fire at his podium. The bullets appeared to hit Trump in his ear, and law enforcement later updated that at least one rallygoer died, while one or two others are critically injured at press time. Security personnel also eliminated the shooter, whose identity remains unknown at press time:
“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country,” Trump wrote in a statement after the event. “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
In his response to the incident, Milei blamed the “international left” for the failed assassination and suggested that leftist violence was an international problem far larger in scope than the threat to Trump’s life.
“The desperation of the international left, that today sees how its nefarious ideology is expiring and is willing to destabilize democracies and promote violence to entrench itself in power, is not surprising,” Milei wrote. “With panic upon losing at the ballot, they resort to terrorism to impose their retrograde and authoritarian agenda”:
“I hope for the fast recovery for President Trump and that the elections in the United States occur in a just, peaceful, and democratic manner,” he concluded.
Milei later posted another message responding to a video of former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler in a television appearance prior to the assassination attempt.
“The little politically correct leftists are all cut from the same cloth, it doesn’t matter where in the world you look,” he wrote. “When in society a deviant adjective appears, there they will be to label their opponents with that adjective… we have several of these sinister beings in the country who can count on their journalist accomplices.”
“Easy, look for the politicians that do this and the journalists who play their game. There you will find the true enemies of LIBERTY. The cultural battle never stops,” he concluded, adding his catchphrase and campaign slogan, “long live liberty, damn it!”:
Milei remained active on Twitter throughout the night, republishing messages of support to former President Trump, including one from the Argentine justice minister, Mariano Cúneo Libarona.
“In 2020 they tried to impeach them. They they tried to imprison him. Today, without any other tools, they went directly for his life. The left is left with no tools to stop him and resorts to violence,” Libarona wrote:
Another message Milei reposted simply stated, “Leftists are the sons of a thousand whores”:
Milei is currently in the United States, his fifth trip to the country since taking office in December. He is in Idaho to attend a conference and is expected to meet with several CEOs of major American technology companies. Milei has yet to meet with American President Joe Biden during any of his visits but made time to meet with Trump in February:
Milei has also long been a supporter of the former American president, including defending Trump from criticism from libertarians. In an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson in September, Milei warned Trump not to “give the socialists any respite” during his campaign to return to the White House, praising him as “one of the few who understood fully that the fight is against socialism, it’s against statists, and perfectly understood that the generation of wealth comes from the private sector.”
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