After Friday’s column ranking American presidents, a reader emailed to ask about ranking foreign leaders.
I responded by stating that Javier Milei is easily the best in the world. And it’s not even close.
Beyond that, I didn’t have any specifics (which is why I sympathized with Gary Johnson back in 2016). I know that Switzerland and Singapore are very well-governed, but are their current leaders especially admirable? I have no idea.
The reader then shared her list, which included Milei, as well as Trump, Victor Orbán of Hungary and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador.
I pushed back, pointing out that Trump is very bad on trade issues and has a weak record on spending.
And I then looked at Economic Freedom of the World to see whether Orbán or Bukele deserved praise.
Lo and behold, economic liberty has dropped during their respective times in office.
I’m not too surprised about Hungary, having pointed out a few years ago that Denmark ranks higher for sensible economic policy.
Yes, Hungary has some good policies, like a flat tax for households and a low corporate tax rate. And I like how Orbán is not a fan of more centralized power for the European Union.
He’s also the leading voice in Europe in the fight against mass immigration. So I understand why some people identify him as a conservative.
But overall economic policy during his reign has been mediocre. Phil Magness is even more dour about Hungary, as you can see from this tweet.
What about Bukele in El Salvador?
He’s famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) for dramatically reducing crime. So I can understand why he’s seen as a conservative.
But I’m not aware of any pro-market reforms since he took office. And this tweet from Daniel Di Martino indicates that economic liberty in El Salvador will probably continuing to decline under his reign.
The bottom line is that I can appreciate why people characterize Milei, Trump, Orbán, and Bukele as conservatives. Indeed, it’s probably accurate to say that all four are cultural conservatives.
But being a cultural conservative (or national conservative, reform conservative, compassionate conservative, etc) is not necessarily the same thing as being an economic conservative.
So I decided to create a Venn Diagram that makes the basic point that every free-market leader is a conservative, but not every conservative is free market.
For what it’s worth, I sometimes refer to myself as a Reaganite. Perhaps in the future I’ll call myself a Mileist.
P.S. I sometimes tell audiences that Donald Trump is a populist rather than a conservative. But it all depends on your definition of conservative. In any event, I think my my Venn Diagram showing the difference between Trumpies, Reaganites, and establishment republicans is very accurate.
International Liberty 
