Trump suggests US will buy Argentinian beef to bring down prices for American consumers

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82. There's plenty in Argentina, I can tell you

A lot of it centers around YPF - the state-owned oil and gas concern.

Established in 1922 as the first state-run energy firm in the world, by the 1970s it had grown to cover most of Argentina's oil and gas needs (which are considerable, since they have chilly - though not frigid - winters, and have a high car ownership rate by LatAm standards).

In 1993 it was privatized (for about half its real book value). The gamble worked well at first - until, in '99, it was sold to a shadowy Spanish firm (Repsol) with ties to Mexican narcos.

They nearly ran YPF into the ground - basically using it to take on debts on its credit, which they mostly just pocketed. So in 2012, the center-left Cristina Kirchner administration re-nationalized it.

Since then, YPF's ouput has boomed - mainly thanks to the Vaca Muerta unconventional oil/gas field. And so, British pirates have been trying to get their claws on it ever since, mainly by way of fraudulent lawsuits - which they've mostly won (thanks to the easily-bribed Federalist Society judge Loretta Preska), but can't collect the (majority) stock award on.

That's where Argentines suspect Trump comes in: That Cheeto's lending that cokehead runt Milei money he knows Argentina can't repay - on condition he hand over a majority stake of YPF to him (through cutouts, naturally).

With Trump, as you know, there's always a grift.