President Javier Milei wielded social media as a powerful weapon when he stormed to power in 2023. Now the online machinery is laying bare the challenges before his re-election bid next year.
Mentions of Milei across social media platforms and websites fell to 3.7 million in June, down about 72 percent from a peak of 12.6 million in February 2025, according to a new report by communications consultancy firm Ad Hoc. Engagement with Milei’s posts on X, such as reposts and likes, has fallen 62 percent since he took office, the firm found.
Milei’s social-media decline is symptomatic of an increasingly rudderless narrative. Economic progress has largely stagnated, his legislative agenda is faltering and multiple corruption scandals have blurred the lines between the libertarian leader and the political establishment he vowed to uproot. Public opinion of Milei is also near its lowest levels.
“Milei knew how to use social media because he responded very well to its dynamics,” said Kevin Grunbaum, Ad Hoc’s digital director. “For him to lose prominence today is a clearly negative sign. The decline in interactions is a symptom of the erosion we are also seeing in public opinion.”
Milei’s press office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A corruption scandal in February 2025 that erupted after Milei promoted a crypto memecoin marked a turning point, according to Ad Hoc. Since then, the conversation around Milei has been increasingly driven by events outside his control rather than the agenda he wants to push.
Growing turmoil inside Milei’s digital machine also mirrors a similar splintering of right-wing opinions on social media in the US over President Donald Trump’s war in Iran. At the same time, researchers have found platforms like X to favour conservative commentary, making Milei’s lack of traction even more notable.
In Buenos Aires, tensions surfaced in 2025, when Daniel Parisini – a prominent libertarian influencer known as ‘Gordo Dan,’ who hosts podcasts with top policymakers – began openly criticising government insiders. The infighting deepened this year, as parts of Milei’s digital base increasingly turned on figures within the ruling coalition.
Meanwhile, some of Milei’s top social media architects are either facing criminal allegations or causing unforced errors.
Fernando Cerimedo, who led Milei’s social media campaign with an army of bots in 2023, was jailed in Bolivia last month over an alleged femicide. Another key online ally, former presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni, resigned in an illicit enrichment scandal in June. Both Cerimedo and Adorni deny wrongdoing.
Earlier this week, China’s Embassy in Argentina criticised Milei’s director of digital communications, Juan Pablo Carreira, for speculating that a state-run Chinese company and the Communist Party were responsible for the glacier collapse on its border with Nepal that killed thousands.
Milei has described himself as “a product of social media.” Before becoming President, he rose to fame through combative television appearances, viral clips and a relentless online presence. His insults, memes and attacks on ‘la casta’ – his term for Argentina’s political establishment – were a central part of that strategy.
Social media also allowed Milei, who lacked traditional political machinery, to compensate for his limited physical presence across Argentina. He travelled relatively little around the country during the 2023 campaign yet won a majority of its 23 provinces. There are nine provinces Milei has yet to visit since taking office, making the erosion of his online reach potentially more consequential as he prepares to seek re-election.
In office, Milei has used social media not only to promote his ideas and policies, but as a potent political weapon to publicly shame opponents.
In April 2024, Senator Martin Lousteau timidly raised his hand during a vote to sharply increase lawmakers’ salaries. Milei seized on Lousteau’s awkward gesture to exemplify a tone deaf attitude among political elites. As a result, Lousteau’s positive image plunged to just 17 percent in June of that year from 38 percent in January 2023, according to a poll by D’Alessio IROL-Berensztein.
Now Milei’s social media attacks may be elevating his opponents instead of sidelining them. He’s heavily criticised leftist politician Myriam Bregman, yet she’s consistently polled as one of the most popular politicians in Argentina this year.
“There’s a sense of disappointment now,” said Sergio Berensztein, head of an eponymous political consulting firm in Buenos Aires. “As scandals mounted and the economy began to slow, the digital militancy lost the moral authority to keep pushing such an aggressive agenda, and the president is virtually the only one still carrying it forward.”
Still, the libertarian digital machine hasn’t disappeared and opposition parties have failed to capitalise on the President’s fading appeal online. YouTube has become home to more anti-Milei content, but traditional opposition politicians aren’t the ones leading that growth.
“Milei and his officials have lost reach, but the activist core remains unusually cohesive,” said Lucas Malaspina, director of Sustantiva, a data and strategy consultancy firm.
A burning question in Argentina’s presidential palace now is who holds sway over the social media activists spreading Milei’s gospel.
Senior adviser Santiago Caputo and Karina Milei, the President’s sister and consigliere, continue to fight over control of digital communications, according to two people familiar with the matter. The issue proved so sensitive last week that when spokesman Adrián Ravier announced that a deputy to Karina would take over the digital helm, he later walked back the comments within hours.
Political analysts insist it’s a temporary problem, as long as the opposition remains adrift in its own message. Ultimately, people’s pocketbooks are likely to matter more than social media.
“Social media is a fundamental tool, so, if that improves a bit and the opposition remains as dormant and uncoordinated as it has until now, maybe they can get away with it,” Berensztein said. “Especially if they can get public opinion around the economy to improve, even marginally.”
by Ignacio Olivera Doll & Manuela Tobias, Bloomberg
