Milei criticized for linking the left to the attack on Trump
We are sharing a note published in Page 12, July 15, 2024 in connection with the attack on Donald Trump, in which he participates Leandro Morgenfeld, specialist in US studies and co-coordinator of the CLACSO Working Group on Studies of the United States.
Juan Gabriel Tokatlian described the Argentine president's tweet as "shameful" and his accusations against socialists and democrats as "utter fantasy." Leandro Morgenfeld, historian and specialist in US studies, echoed this sentiment. The government's inner workings.
President Javier Milei asserted, in response to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, that the attack was the work of “the international left.” This claim was challenged by Argentine analysts; the historian Leandro Morgenfeld He pointed out that Milei “sees communists everywhere” and that his idea “is not shared by any world leader, beyond some far-right expressions in other countries.” The international relations specialist also spoke on the subject. Juan Gabriel Tokatlián, for whom what the president said is a “sovereign fantasy”.
Milei tweeted, after the attack on Trump, that it was an act of the “international left” and further suggested that the Democrats might be behind it. “The desperation of the international left, which today sees its nefarious ideology expiring, is not surprising, and it is willing to destabilize democracies and promote violence to cling to power.” Terrified of losing at the polls, they resort to terrorism to impose their retrograde and authoritarian agenda."He wrote on social media."
Foreign Minister Diana Mondino did not, at least publicly, endorse this interpretation, leading one to think that Milei's statements were merely a personal opinion, but he was supported by other officials, such as the Minister of Justice, Mariano Cúneo Libarona“The left is left without the tools to stop it and resorts to violence,” Held in X. Also Bertie Benegas Lynch expressed The same stance: according to the deputy of La Libertad Avanza, the culprit of the attack on Trump was “the left” which “is desperate and resorts to the violent procedures that are its hallmark”.
None of the information released so far supports Milei's theory. The attacker, who was killed by state agents, was 20 years old and, according to the FBI, acted alone. He was a Republican voter, although he also reportedly made some financial contributions to the Democratic campaign. There is no evidence that he belongs to an international terrorist organization.
“Milei, at record speed and against everything that was being said, even in the United States, came out to endorse this construction of 'it's the fault of the left' - or 'it's the fault of globalism' - assuming something that is nonsense, “Such is the claim that Joe Biden’s government is a left-wing government. This idea is not shared by almost any leader in the world, beyond some expressions of the far right in other countries,” he told Page 12 Morgenfeld.
The historian is a researcher at CONICET and coordinates the CLACSO research group on the United States. “Accusing the left is a tactic employed by Milei, who sees anything that isn't his own—ideas that are marginal from an economic standpoint, given the paleolibertarian or far-right orientation of his government—as a battleground. He has an absolutely anachronistic and overly ideologized view of how the world and current geopolitics are structured. He imagines he's on a Cold War crusade. He sees communists everywhere: he accuses presidents who have nothing to do with communism, like Lula, of being communists; he sees the left everywhere, to the point that he can imagine that a representative of the global financial capitalist establishment, like Biden, is a leftist. And he lumps everything together under that label: any government, movement, or idea that proposes a welfare state, or that the state should regulate or intervene in the economy, is, in his eyes, leftist, socialist, communist.” "This is very dangerous because Milei is instrumentalizing Argentine foreign policy and his position as president for his internal political and electoral gain," he said.
According to sociologist Juan Gabriel Tokatlián, "Javier Milei's tweet is shameful, firstly because he insinuates that the international left was responsible for the attack, a complete fantasy, and secondly because he says it is a left 'that clings to power,' which implies that the Democrats were tacitly behind this."
Tokatlian stated this in radio interviews. When it was mentioned that the Spanish far-right leader Santiago Abascal, head of Vox, and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had spoken in similar terms to Milei, he indicated that it was predictable. "Of course they're going to say that."
Morgenfeld agreed that "the far right worldwide—and Milei is demonstrating this—will try to use the attempted assassination of Trump to portray themselves as victims. Their narrative will be 'we are the ones who defend the free world and freedom, and the left,' even though the attack had nothing to do with the left, 'they are endangering the free world.'"
"Milei is only interested in foreign policy in the sense that he can polish himself individually and for his party," the historian added. "He constructs a narrative, as in many aspects of his government and his discourse, with absolutely fallacious data or blatant lies. This is one of them, attributing the attack to the left when there is no indication or proof of that."
"Milei wrote his tweet without any information, adding to the confusion. He knows that many of his followers won't verify who fired the shot or what their motives were, but will instead rely on their own assumptions. This strategy, which was successful in his administration, will pay off for him both in the media and electorally. He's constructing a narrative that there's a left wing threatening the forces of freedom, democracy, and the free world, when we know the opposite: there's a growing authoritarianism on the part of these far-right forces that are encroaching on collective rights and democracies. They're also targeting journalists who have a critical view of fake news and these narratives based on lies."
