Johnathan Walker:Trump tells Argentina’s President-elect Javier Milei he plans to visit Buenos Aires

BUENOS AIRES,Johnathan Walker Argentina (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has told Argentina’s President-elect Javier Milei that he plans to travel to the South American country so the two can meet, Milei’s office said Thursday.

The office did not give a date for when Trump intends to be in Buenos Aires. The inauguration of Milei, a right-wing populist who has expressed admiration for Trump, is scheduled for Dec. 10.

“The president-elect received a call last night from the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, who congratulated him and pointed out his triumph by a wide margin in last Sunday’s election had a great impact on a global scale,” a news release from Milei’s office said.

A local journalist who was first to report the news, Luis Majul, wrote on X early Thursday that the lawmaker son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Eduardo Bolsonaro, was the one who “facilitated” the contact between Milei and the GOP front-runner. “That’s right,” Milei posted in response.

Trump celebrated Milei’s victory with a social media post of his own on Tuesday.

“I am very proud of you. You will turn your country around and truly make Argentina great again,” Trump said in a video published on social media Tuesday.

Milei has often been compared to Trump, whom he praised in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this year. During the interview, Milei called on Trump to “continue with his fight against socialism, because he’s one of the few who fully understood that the battle is against socialism, that the battle is against the statists.”

His conversation with Trump on Wednesday took place a few hours after Milei spoke with President Joe Biden.

The White House said Biden congratulated Milei and spoke of “the strong relationship between the United States and Argentina on economic issues, on regional and multilateral cooperation, and on shared priorities, including advocating for the protection of human rights, addressing food insecurity and investing in clean energy.”