Javier Gerardo Milei (born 22 October 1970) is an Argentine politician and economist who has served as President of Argentina since 2023. Milei also served as a national deputy representing the City of Buenos Aires for the party La Libertad Avanza from 2021 until his resignation in 2023 due to him being elected President of Argentina that same year.

Born in Buenos Aires, Milei attended the University of Belgrano, where he obtained a degree in economics, and later obtained a master's degree from the Institute of Social and Economic Development, and another one from the private Torcuato di Tella University. Milei later became a professor of macroeconomics. He rose to public prominence in the 2010s by appearing as a pundit on various television programmes in which he was a vocal critic of the Argentine political establishment.

In the 2021 legislative election Milei was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, representing the City of Buenos Aires for La Libertad Avanza. As a national deputy, he limited his legislative activities to voting, focusing instead on critiquing Argentina's political elite and its propensity for high government spending. Milei pledged not to raise taxes, and donated his national deputy salary through a monthly raffle. He defeated the incumbent economy minister, Sergio Massa, in the second round of the 2023 presidential election, on a platform that held the ideological dominance of Kirchnerism responsible for the ongoing Argentine monetary crisis.

Milei is known for his flamboyant personality, distinctive personal style, and strong media presence, including his catchphrase "¡Viva la libertad, carajo!". He has been described politically as a right-wing populist and right-wing libertarian who supports laissez-faire economics, aligning specifically with minarchist and anarcho-capitalist principles. Milei has proposed a comprehensive overhaul of the country's fiscal and structural policies. On social issues he opposes abortion and euthanasia, and supports civilian ownership of firearms. He also supports freedom of choice on drug policy and prostitution. In foreign policy he advocates closer relations with the United States and with Israel.

Javier Gerardo Milei was born on 22 October 1970 in Palermo, Buenos Aires, to Norberto Milei and Alicia Lucich. He grew up in the neighborhood of Villa Devoto and later moved to the Sáenz Peña district. Alicia worked as a homemaker, and Norberto was a bus driver who later became a successful businessman.

Milei is of paternal Italian descent. His grandfather came from Rossano in the Calabria region of Southern Italy in 1926. His father's maternal great-grandparents came from the municipalities Francavilla in Sinni and Pignola in the Basilicata region of Southern Italy. On his maternal side, he is of Croatian and Italian descent. His mother's paternal grandparents and great-grandparents came from Jelsa on the island of Hvar and settled in San Lorenzo, a department in the province of Santa Fe in Argentina. His mother's maternal grandparents came from San Severino in the Marche region of Central Italy and settled also in San Lorenzo. Furthermore, Milei revealed in 2024 that his grandfather, a great influence in his life, discovered that he was a Jew from matrilineal descent shortly before his death. His grandfather's maternal grandfather had been a rabbi.

Milei says he was subject to abuse during his childhood, and after he moved away from home as a young adult, he did not speak to his parents for a decade. By 2018 he had stopped talking to them entirely and regarded them as dead. Milei has said the abuse he suffered contributed to his ability to handle adversity. He was supported by his maternal grandmother and his younger sister, Karina, with whom he shares a close bond and whom he calls "the boss". Milei attended Catholic schools, including the Cardenal Copello secondary school. At school, he was nicknamed el Loco ("the Madman") for his outbursts and passionate rhetoric. In his late teens and early adulthood, Milei sang in the cover band Everest, which mostly played Rolling Stones covers. He also played goalkeeper for the Chacarita Juniors football team until 1989, when Argentina suffered from hyperinflation, and he committed to a career in economics.

The collapse of Argentina's exchange rate led to Milei's interest in economics in the early 1980s. Milei studied introductory economics and the law of supply and demand, which he thought seemed at odds with the ongoing hyperinflation; he said he saw people "throwing themselves on top of the merchandise" in a supermarket and began to study economics in more detail to understand it.