Argentine ‘Anarcho-Capitalist’ President-Elect’s First Stop on American Visit Is Burial Site of Lubavitcher Rebbe
Milei heads for Washington Tuesday for meetings at the White House and Treasury Department.

In his first foreign trip since winning Argentina’s presidential runoff last week, Libertarian firebrand Javier Milei landed at New York City to visit the burial site of one of Judaism’s most renowned leaders and, reportedly, nosh with a former Democratic president before heading for Washington Tuesday for meetings at the White House and Treasury Department.
Mr. Melei visited the burial place of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Rebbe, who led the Chabad-Lubavitch movement for more than four decades before his death in 1994. Schneerson’s grave, at a cemetery in Queens, is visited annually by thousands of Jewish people and occasionally by world leaders.
Rabbi Schneerson led Chabad-Lubavitch as the seventh rebbe, or spiritual leader. In those years, he was one of the most influential global leaders in Judaism, reinvigorating a small community that had been devastated by the Holocaust and pushing for all Jews to become more deeply connected to their faith and do more good in their everyday lives.
Mr. Milei, a Roman Catholic, has been studying the Torah for years and has openly talked about his respect for Judaism. Although he’s expressed a desire to convert to Judaism, he hasn’t formally started the process, although he says he’s close.
Mr. Milei has also expressed staunch support for Israel, both before and after he won the presidential election. During the campaign, he often waved an Israeli flag at his rallies — especially after October 7.
Argentina’s president-elect has said he wants to move Argentina’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, emulating a move made by President Trump.
“I don’t go to the church; I go to the temple. I don’t talk to priests; I have a head rabbi. I study the Torah,” Mr. Milei said in an August interview. “I’m internationally recognized as a friend of Israel and a scholar of the Torah.”
After the morning visit to the Rebbe’s grave, according to Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper, Mr. Milei had a private lunch with President Clinton. Details about the conversation were unreported, but the meeting is said by the paper to be a search for an “ideological balance” in his international contacts.
Tuesday, the president-elect heads to Washington, where he will meet with President Biden’s national security adviser, according to the White House.
The National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, told reporters on Monday that Mr. Milei will meet with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other administration officials. Mr. Biden, who will be traveling on Tuesday to Georgia for a memorial service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter and then to Colorado, will not meet with Mr. Milei on this trip.
The Treasury Department said in a statement that Mr. Milei’s economic policy advisers will also meet with senior Treasury Officials on Tuesday. That meeting is expected to focus on the incoming Milei administration’s economic policy priorities.
“We want to continue to look for ways to cooperate with Argentina,” Mr. Kirby said. “Argentina is a healthy and vibrant partner in this hemisphere on many, many issues. And so we’re looking forward to obviously hearing what the president-elect’s ideas are and where he wants to go on policy issues and making sure that we have a chance to keep that channel of communication open.”
Mr. Milei’s meetings at Washington “are protocol-driven to explain the economic plan: fiscal adjustment, monetary reform, state reform, and deregulation,” a spokesman for Mr. Milei, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to talk on the record, told the Associated Press. “It is not in search of financing.”
Mr. Milei, who has been compared to Mr. Trump, was elected earlier this month and is scheduled to be inaugurated on December 10. The president-elect has spoken favorably of Mr. Trump, and said that the 45th president told him in a congratulatory call last week that he would travel to Argentina so the two could meet face-to-face.