Milei pins Malvinas hopes on Trump’s clash with the UK

A leaked Pentagon memo suggesting that the Donald Trump administration is weighing a review of Washington's support for European “imperial possessions” has reverberated in Buenos Aires, where Argentina's long-running claim over the Malvinas archipelago — known to the British as the Falkland Islands — has been hindered for decades by Washington’s backing of Westminster.

The memo, which outlined options for punishing NATO members that declined to support Trump's war on Iran, is not the only recent signal of a possible shift. Last year, Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posted on X: “I recognize the Malvinas Islands as part of Argentina! 🇦🇷”

A separate report last year by Horacio Verbitsky, an influential Argentine journalist and a sharp critic of President Javier Milei, claimed that government officials had discussed authorizing an American military base on the islands in exchange for Washington's recognition of Argentine sovereignty.

Such a swap could be sold domestically as a historic restoration, even as effective control of the archipelago passed from the UK to the US.