If you believe the legacy media, the world has more than two famous Donald Trumps in politics.
You may be aware of former President Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr., a vocal supporter of his father, but the media want you to think Donald Trumps are running for office worldwide.
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The latest supposed iteration of Donald Trump is Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei. The Telegraph ran a story last week titled "Javier Milei is bringing the spirit of Trump to Argentina." Bloomberg had another titled "Why Argentina’s Trump-Like Candidate Is Disturbing Markets," and the Washington Post ran a piece titled "Javier Milei: In Argentina, a new Trump rises."
These stories come after Milei was the top vote-getter in the 2023 Argentine presidential primary. While Milei is right-wing, comparing him to Trump makes little sense.
Milei is a free market-proponent who is much different than Trump. An economist who admires right-wing libertarians such as Milton Friedman and Murray Rothbard, he supports Austrian economics, austerity, and anarcho-capitalism. Meanwhile, during his presidency, Trump raised government spending and signed record stimulus spending into law during the coronavirus pandemic.
Free marketeers also disagree with Trump on trade. Trump referred to himself as a "tariff man" during his presidency, raising tariffs on China, the European Union, and others. He also ratified the USMCA, which increased protectionism in automobile manufacturing. Conversely, Milei supports freer trade and wants to eliminate trade barriers, including tariffs.
The misnomer of labeling Milei an Argentinian Trump is similar to the media labeling former British prime minister Boris Johnson as British Trump, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro as Trump of the tropics, and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban as a Trump-like figure. (Even "Italy’s Giorgia Meloni ... may be a Trump," per a Guardian article.)
Johnson, for example, supports his country having net-zero emissions by 2050, called the overturning of Roe v. Wade "a big step backwards," and raised taxes on working people to fund his country's single-payer healthcare system.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro did not become president by promising to build a wall and make Venezuela pay for it. Most Brazilian Americans supported Bolsonaro as an anti-corruption candidate who prioritized public safety. Yet, many of those Bolsonaro supporters opposed Trump, a pro-business immigration hawk who signed a criminal justice reform bill into law.
Also, Orban, like many foreign right-wing politicians, supports social spending programs that would nauseate the average elected Republican. Orban supports family allowances, generous housing assistance for young families with children, and free nurseries in Hungary. While Trump floated baby bonuses in a speech earlier this year, he did not pursue a pro-natal agenda in the White House.
Comparing every foreign right-wing politician to Trump is lazy and misleading. We should judge politicians by their ideas rather than assuming Donald Trump clones rule the world.
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Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.