Conan (Javier Milei's dog)

Conan (2004 – May 2017) was an English Mastiff adopted by Argentina's president Javier Milei as a puppy in 2004, and named after the title character in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian. Milei, who never married and is childless, referred to Conan as his closest friend and confidant. Conan died from spinal cancer in 2017. Milei cloned Conan in 2018, and the resulting clones have attracted international attention since Milei's 2023 Argentine presidential election campaign.

Life
Conan was born around 2004, and Milei took him as a puppy that year and treated him as a family member. Milei referred to Conan as one of his "four-legged children", and in 2018 told Perfil that Conan "is literally a son to me". He also reportedly gave Conan champagne.

In May 2017, Conan died as a result of spinal cancer. Of Conan's death, Milei said that he had not really died (he called it "his physical disappearance" and continued to refer to Conan in the present tense) but gone to sit next to God to protect him, and that it was thanks to this that he had begun to have talks with God himself.

Cloning
Milei had Conan cloned in 2018 and named the six resulting puppies after the original Conan and the economists Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard, and Robert Lucas Jr.; two of them were named after the latter. The sixth dog, who died shortly after, was named Angelito ("little angel"). Milei said that he cloned Conan because he understands cloning as "a way of approaching eternity". To do this, he went to a clinic in the United States; the process cost him about $50,000.

Milei allegedly stated that he communicates with the dogs through a mystic, and that he seeks counseling from them. He also allegedly commented that the new Conan provides ideas on general strategy, Robert is the one who makes him "see the future and learn from mistakes", Milton is in charge of political analysis, and Murray of the economy. When asked about this by El País journalist Martín Sivak and Nicolás Lucca of Radio Rivadavia, Milei did not deny it, and said: "What I do with my spiritual life and in my house is my business. If Conan advises me on politics, it means that he is the best consultant of humanity." In addition to having dialogues with the likes of Rothbard and Ayn Rand, Milei allegedly cited Conan as a source of inspiration for his writings in 2015.

2023 presidential campaign
Since Milei's rise to prominence in politics, Conan and the other mastiffs cloned after him attracted international attention due to Milei's comments about them. Milei does not distinguish between the current cloned Conan and the original, considering both to be his son, and the other puppies his grandchildren. He has claimed to receive policy and campaign advice from his dogs, and thanked them after his win in the 2023 Argentine primary elections.

Ron Gillespie, who runs PerPETuate, a genetic preservation company in Hawaii, said about Milei's cloned mastiffs: "I don't have a vote in the Argentine election, but I do have five dogs in the race." Milei maintains that he and Conan have a mission assigned to them by God. According to various sources consulted by La Nación, Milei maintains that he and Conan first met in a previous life more than 2,000 years ago as a gladiator and a lion in the Roman Colosseum, and that the pair did not fight because they were destined to join forces in the future, referring to his presidential campaign.

On 24 November 2023, Milei shared an AI-generated image on his Instagram that depicts himself and his five dogs (with one of them much larger than the others in reference to Conan), calling it his "family album" in the caption. The image, which was widely commented on online, was his first post on the social network after being elected president five days earlier.

On his inauguration as Argentina's president, Milei broke with the tradition of using an official presidential baton (Spanish: Bastón presidencial (Argentina)) carved by goldsmith Juan Carlos Pallarols, opting for a design featuring Conan and his four clones carved on it. According to sources consulted by Clarín, Milei will bring his four dogs to live with him in the Quinta de Olivos (the official presidential residence), which has caused security concerns among the staff there, as they are known to be "problematic". Milei announced that the presidential residence would be renovated to accommodate the four dogs, who are used to living separately.