Javier Milei, the President of Argentina, who is often called the "Trump of South America," is sparking intense controversy surrounding freedom of the press and presidential decorum as he continuously hurls insulting remarks at the media and journalists.

Joaquín Morales Solá, a columnist for the local daily La Nación, analyzed on the 30th (local time) that President Milei spent a staggering eight hours on the 25th posting or sharing social media content attacking the media. He also calculated that Milei shared and published 335 messages criticizing the media over a single week from the 17th to the 23rd.

The expressions used by President Milei are also growing increasingly harsh. He has denounced the media as "trash," "liars," and "useless human excrement," while continuing to disparage journalists as "those who write articles for money" and "those who cling to government media subsidies and advertising fees." Furthermore, he has adopted the slogan "We don't hate journalists enough" (NOLSALP), inciting the claim that the media spreads false information about the economic situation.

One of the high points of the controversy occurred on the 27th during a speech at ORT, a private Jewish high school in Buenos Aires. He delivered a 40-minute speech on "Ethics and Artificial Intelligence as State Policy" targeted at middle school 4th and 5th-year students (equivalent to high school juniors and seniors in South Korea). However, a significant portion of the speech turned into attacks on the economy, libertarian ideology, the opposition party, and the media.

In particular, the moment he mentioned journalists, boos erupted among the students. Instead of stopping them, President Milei stated, "If you want to boo louder, I'd be even happier." This prompted the students to continue booing journalists while applauding President Milei. In his speech that day, he also defined Marx as a "satanist." Criticism emerged that a school event originally arranged around the theme of ethics and artificial intelligence had degraded into a political and ideological speech.

Solá characterized President Milei’s recent media attacks as "violence and anger," analyzing that he has attacked or insulted the media more than 1,000 times since taking office. Recently, Economy Minister Luis Caputo raised arguments suggesting the need for laws capable of punishing journalists who report "baseless information," and President Milei publicly supported this, deepening concerns inside and outside journalistic circles.

Although President Milei came to power championing sweeping economic reforms, his recurring, blatant hostility and insults toward the media inevitably undermine the political leadership required to steer those reforms. In particular, his behavior of encouraging students to boo the media in front of teenagers raises deep concerns that the president's words can serve as a tool that fosters social division and hatred.

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