Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who has won high praise from Elon Musk, was caught in the middle of crypto scam in the country, that may have cost investors close to $5 million. The story is that Milei used his huge following on social media to promote a new crypto coin called the $LIBRA. Milei told his followers that the $LIBRA would stimulate the economy and help small businesses grow.

This post sent the value of the $LIBRA soaring. However, as people began to investigate the coin, they became suspicious that it was a scam. The price began to crumble, and Milei took down his post. The coin quickly lost more than 90 percent of its value. Milei then said that he didn’t know anything about the coin and took no responsibility for his actions. Meanwhile, a number of people bought the coin near its peak, allowing the originators of the scam to cash out with big gains and leaving them with big loses.

In the scheme of things, a $5 million dollar scam is not a big deal even in Argentina. But it does say a great deal about the way things work in the Trump-Milei world.

Like Trump, Milei has taken big pride in disrupting Argentina’s government and economy. He also fired large numbers of civil servants and cut back government spending in many areas. In fairness, Milei did have more to complain about. The country was suffering from double-digit inflation, and the economy was in a recession.

Nonetheless, it is not clear that Milei’s wrecking ball approach is likely to be a step forward. The poverty rate soared to over 50 percent as the recession became far steeper and the unemployment rate jumped.

Part of Milei’s agenda, like Trump’s, is promoting cryptocurrency. As with Trump, Milei has never suggested a serious use for crypto. In Argentina, as in the US, the only known use for crypto is facilitating illegal transactions like drug dealing and ransom payments.

Nonetheless, both presidents express a strong fondness for it. Donald Trump and Melanie Trump even have put out their own crypto currency, likely pocketing close to $100 million from it.

It is a bit ironic seeing the Milei venture, and possibly the Trump coins, referred to as “crypto scams.” That is a bit like fake counterfeit currency. But apart from the philosophical issue, there is the point about the extraordinary ability of a president to use the power of the government for their own personal gain.

While past presidents may not have been squeaky clean, we have never seen a president so willing to openly use their power to line their pocket as Donald Trump. At this point it is not even news because Trump is so open about it.

In that sense the Milei clown show is interesting in that, at least in Argentina, this sort of sleaze is still a scandal. Argentina generally has not ranked very high on most people’s lists for good governance, but for now, it stands well above the United States.