When President Trump fired the Commissioner of Labor Statistics earlier this month, hours after a weak jobs report , it gave me a déjà vu from my youth in Argentina. In 2007, leftist President Cristina Kirchner similarly fired those responsible for government statistics and installed loyalists who’d issue “friendlier” numbers.

Trump and the Kirchner coalition sit on opposite sides of the conventional left–right political spectrum, yet they share myriad commonalities. Why? And what can the case of Argentina teach Americans?

The Kirchnerist coalition governed Argentina for nearly 20 years—from 2003 to 2015, and then again from 2019 to 2023. During that time, their left-leaning, nationalistic policies caused a 211% annual inflation rate and crushing poverty in a country on

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