Javier Gerardo Milei (born 22 October 1970) is an Argentine politician and economist who has served as the president of Argentina since 2023. He previously served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2021 to 2023.
Born in Buenos Aires, Milei attended the University of Belgrano, where he obtained a degree in economics, and undertook postgraduate coursework at the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social, and at Torcuato di Tella University, though neither resulted in a completed degree. He rose to public prominence in the 2010s by appearing as a pundit on various television shows in which he was a vocal critic of the Argentine political establishment.
In the 2021 legislative election, Milei was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, representing the City of Buenos Aires for La Libertad Avanza. As a national deputy, he limited his legislative activities to voting, focusing instead on critiquing Argentina's political elite and its propensity for high government spending. Milei pledged not to raise taxes, and donated his national deputy salary through a monthly raffle. He defeated the incumbent economy minister, Sergio Massa, in the second round of the 2023 presidential election, on a platform that held the ideological dominance of Kirchnerism responsible for the ongoing Argentine monetary crisis.
Since taking office, Milei has focused on stabilizing Argentina's economy through spending cuts, deregulation, and monetary restraint after decades of economic mismanagement. According to INDEC, the government's statistics agency, inflation fell sharply, the government achieved its first fiscal surplus since 2008, and poverty declined to an estimated 31.6% in early 2025, while wages partially recovered despite uneven sector performance. Economic growth modestly resumed, though rising living and healthcare costs and reduced consumption continued to strain public support. Milei's reforms remain politically risky but were reinforced by La Libertad Avanza winning a plurality in the 2025 legislative elections.
Milei is known for his flamboyant personality, distinctive personal style, and strong media presence, including his catchphrase "¡Viva la libertad, carajo!". He has been described politically as a right-wing populist and libertarian who supports laissez-faire economics, aligning specifically with minarchist and anarcho-capitalist principles. He has proposed a comprehensive overhaul of the country's fiscal and structural policies. On social issues, he opposes abortion and euthanasia, and supports civilian ownership of firearms. He also supports "freedom of choice" on drug policy. On foreign policy, he advocates closer relations with both Israel and the United States (mainly under the Trump administration), while shifting Argentina away from BRICS.
Javier Gerardo Milei was born on 22 October 1970 in Palermo, Buenos Aires, to Norberto Milei and Alicia Lucich. He grew up in the neighborhood of Villa Devoto and later moved to the Sáenz Peña district. Alicia worked as a homemaker, and Norberto was a bus driver who later became a successful businessman.
Milei is of paternal Italian descent. His grandfather came from Rossano in the Calabria region of Southern Italy in 1926. His father's maternal great-grandparents came from the municipalities Francavilla in Sinni and Pignola in the Basilicata region of Southern Italy. On his maternal side, he is of Croatian and Italian descent. His mother's paternal grandparents and great-grandparents came from Jelsa on the island of Hvar and settled in San Lorenzo, a department in the province of Santa Fe in Argentina. His mother's maternal grandparents came from San Severino in the Marche region of Central Italy and settled also in San Lorenzo. Furthermore, Milei revealed in 2024 that his grandfather, a great influence in his life, discovered that he was Jewish from matrilineal descent shortly before his death. He also expressed that his grandfather's maternal grandfather may have been a rabbi.
Milei says he was subject to abuse during his childhood, and after he moved away from home as a young adult, he did not speak to his parents for a decade. By 2018, he had stopped talking to them entirely and regarded them as dead. Milei has said the abuse he suffered contributed to his ability to handle adversity. He was supported by his maternal grandmother and his younger sister, Karina, with whom he shares a close bond and whom he calls "the boss". Milei attended Catholic schools, including the Cardenal Copello secondary school. At school, he was nicknamed el Loco ("the Madman") for his outbursts and passionate rhetoric. In his late teens and early adulthood, Milei sang in the cover band Everest, which mostly played Rolling Stones covers. He also played goalkeeper for the Chacarita Juniors football team until 1989, when Argentina suffered from hyperinflation, and he committed to a career in economics.
The collapse of Argentina's exchange rate led to Milei's interest in economics in the early 1980s. Milei studied introductory economics and the law of supply and demand, which seemed to him at odds with the ongoing hyperinflation; he said he saw people "throwing themselves on top of the merchandise" in a supermarket and began to study economics in more detail to understand it.
For 15 years, he worked at the private company Corporación América as the chief economist and financial adviser to Eduardo Eurnekian.
Milei is the author of several books, including El camino del libertario. He has a notable presence on television, with a 2018 ranking by Ejes showing him as the most interviewed economist on TV, at 235 interviews totaling 193,347 seconds. Milei also hosted his own radio show, Demoliendo mitos (Demolishing Myths), featuring regular appearances by Alberdian and right-wing libertarian personalities, including the economist and businessman Gustavo Lazzari, the lawyer Pablo Torres Barthe, and the political scientist María Zaldívar.
During the 2010s, Milei regularly participated in televised debates, where he was known for using strong language and confrontational rhetoric. In some instances, he insulted other participants and used profanity when expressing his political views, including during a debate with Buenos Aires chief of government Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. This led many commentators to label him anti-political or disruptive. Ted Cruz, a United States senator, jokingly proposed inviting him to the 2024 Republican Party presidential debates.
In February 2017, Milei praised former economy minister Domingo Cavallo, describing him as the best to have held the position in Argentina. He credited Cavallo with ending the 1989 hyperinflation and initiating state reforms, and attributed the 2001 economic crisis to earlier policy decisions that Cavallo was unable to reverse in time. In November 2017, Milei drew attention for criticizing the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, which he described as a center of Marxist indoctrination. He argued that this had contributed to what he called a widespread dominance of Keynesian economic thought in Argentina.
In June 2018, Milei was involved in a public dispute with the journalist Teresita Frías after he called her “dumb” in response to calling his political views totalitarian. Consequently, a local court briefly imposed appearance restrictions on Milei, though no charges were filed. That same year, Milei made his acting debut in the play El consultorio de Milei, alongside Claudio Rico and Diego Sucalesca. In 2019, Noticias included him on its list of the most influential people in Argentina. In 2020, he publicly supported protests against the government of President Alberto Fernández.
From 2020 to 2021, Milei was a member of Avanza Libertad (Advance, Freedom), a political party founded by José Luis Espert. During his campaign for the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, Milei focused on Buenos Aires neighborhoods, where he took strolls and had talks with ordinary people. He pledged not to support any tax increases or new taxes. He ran under the slogan "I didn't come here to lead lambs, but to awaken lions", denouncing what he saw as a political caste, which he said was composed of "useless, parasitic politicians who have never worked". He called politicians "rats" and said they formed "a parasitic caste" that thinks only about getting rich. He used phrases like "I'm here to kick these criminals out" and was especially supported by youth; he promoted his political views on television, radio, and YouTube. Additionally, Milei reconciled with his parents.