An Old Testament sage once said, “there is nothing new in the world.” Yet the Trump administration and that of Javier Milei in Argentina have really found something unique.

It is the bailout of a Latin American country in which the corruption, self-dealing and cynicism on both sides appears evenly balanced. In the 57 years since the U.S. Army sent me to Brazil, kindling my own love affair with that complex continent, I have never seen anything quite like it.

Consider the paradoxes:

• Just as U.S. farmers are piling soybeans on the ground because storage and transportation systems are jammed full by lack of exports, mainly to China, the Trump administration is organizing a $40 billion bailout of a country that just made a large sale of soybeans to China and will sell more.

• Just as U.S

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