Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last
month that if New York City needed a federal bailout(紓困) under the leadership of mayoral(市長的) candidate Zohran Mamdandi, it would be rebuffed(粗暴拒絕;生硬拒絕;斷然拒絕) by the Trump administration with two words.
“Drop dead(去死，滾開，閉嘴),” Bessent said in an interview on Fox Business.
But Argentina is a different story. The
Trump Department has been working to prop up(支持，維持) its sputtering(勉強進行) economy, and on Sep 24th
Bessent declared that the United States was ready to extend a $20 billion lifeline(命脈，生命線，救生索).
The moves are intended to buttress(加固，支持) the fortunes of Javier
Milei, Argentina’s embattled(危機四伏的；處境艱難的) president, whom President Donald Trump sees as a kindred(相似的；相關的) political spirit.
By offering economic support to Argentina,
the Trump administration is wading into (貿然涉足；貿然插手)the precarious(（情勢）不穩定的，不確定的，危險的) politics of bailouts, which Republicans
traditionally loathe(恨，憎恨;厭惡). By using America’s
economic power to influence another country’s election, the president is tying(tie的過去分詞) the United States to the financial fate of Argentina, which has been plagued(不斷困擾;折磨;使受煎熬) for decades with surging(陡增，遽增，急遽上升) inflation and
rampant(猖獗的，泛濫的) debt.
The moves have been rebuked(斥責;指責;訓斥) by America agriculture
groups whose members have been hurt by Trump’s trade war with China.
China stopped buying American agricultural
products such as soybeans after Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese
imports. Instead, China has been purchasing soybeans from Brazil and Argentina,
raising fears across rural America of a looming(（不希望或不愉快的事情）迫近的，逼近的) farm crisis.
The American Soybean Association said the “frustration
is overwhelming.” The group pointed out that Argentina just lowered its export
taxes so that it could sell even more soybeans to China, further undercutting(報價低於（競爭對手）) the U.S. farmers who
face high Chinese tariffs.
The U.S. support is intended to restore
confidence in Argentina’s economy and bolster(支撐;加固;提高;改善) Milei after his party lost badly
in a recent local election and faces critical legislative elections this month.
The mechanics of the support, which Bessent
is still negotiating with his Argentina counterparts, remain unclear, but
analysts say it could be risky to American taxpayers.
The sheer size(其中"sheer" 意為「完全的、徹底的」，而"size"
意為「尺寸、大小」。 合起來用來強調事物的大小非常巨大，例如「龐大的尺寸」或「巨大的規模」。) of the bailout “raised eyebrows(使人吃驚，令人震驚),” said
Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International
Economics. The arrangement is also unusual in that, at least so far, it is not being
conditioned on(「視......而定」或「取決於」；附加條件) spending cuts, foreign exchange policy(「外匯政策」) changes or other requirements that are typical of the loans
provided by institutions like the International Monetary Fund.
“The U.S. is getting itself into something
that they have no
exit strategy for沒有退出策略，撤退計畫,” she said.
(Alan Rappeport and Colby Smith)
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