FEBRUARY 4, 2026
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, at microphone, after Tuesday’s meeting with President Trump. – Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Just last month, President Trump was floating military action against Colombia to curb cocaine flows and blasting the country’s President Gustavo Petro as a “sick man.” On Tuesday, the two sat down for a private meeting that capped a remarkable reversal, with the leaders exchanging gifts and signaling a detente.
Petro, who has blasted Trump as a fascist “complicit in genocide,” exited the White House grinning with a red MAGA hat in hand and an autographed copy of “The Art of the Deal.”
“He and I weren’t exactly the best of friends, but I wasn’t insulted because I’d never met him, I didn’t know him at all,” Trump said after the meeting, noting the two leaders had discussed counternarcotics efforts and other issues. “We got along very well.
Trump added: “I thought he was terrific.”
U.S. and Colombian officials, who had worked for months behind the scenes to engineer a reset with one of Washington’s most important security partners, appeared to breathe a sigh of relief. The sit-down could reset relations after the two countries’ bombastic leaders spent a year trading personal insults and feuding over counternarcotics, trade and deportations.
In an unusual break from the usual choreography of visits by foreign leaders, the White House didn’t open the Oval Office sit-down to the press and skipped the customary greetings and joint remarks.
“I think this is a small step, but it eases the risk of a great human conflagration,” Petro told reporters at the Colombian Embassy in Washington after the meeting. While they spoke about “concrete problems and possible paths forward,” neither of them changed their “way of thinking on many issues,” he said. He also said he had taken a pen and added an “S” to the hat gifted by Trump so it said, “Make Americas Great Again.”
Colombian officials said they hoped to show Trump and administration officials another side to Petro, that of a what they characterized as a tireless fighter against the cocaine trade. They had their work cut out for them because many experts on the drug trade say Colombia’s record seizures of the drug reflect the fact that there is more cocaine than ever before.
Trump has threatened military action against Colombia and wielded tariffs, aid cuts and other penalties against Petro, whom he has called a raving “lunatic” and an “illegal drug leader” with a “fresh mouth.” Petro has responded in kind, framing Trump as a threat to humanity and urging U.S. troops to disobey his orders.
Moments after the meeting, Petro posted a photograph of him smiling and shaking hands with a grinning American president. A note from Trump read: “Gustavo—a great honor—I love Colombia.”
The Colombian leader presented Trump with coffee produced by farmers who had given up growing drug crops. He also brought a wool tunic for first lady Melania Trump, handwoven on a loom with embroidery from Colombia’s indigenous southwest.
If the meeting went well behind closed doors, that is good for both countries, said , who served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law-enforcement affairs at the State Department until January.
“The U.S. needs Colombia if we are going to be serious about fighting crime and insecurity in the hemisphere,” he said. “The two presidents don’t have to like each other to have the kind of relationship that allows our law enforcers and diplomats to work together.”
A screen in Bogotá showed Colombia’s Gustavo Petro and President Trump shaking hands. – Nathalia Angarita/Reuters
The expansion of drug crops and cocaine has been a major theme as Colombia prepares for May presidential elections. Petro cannot run again but an ally is leading in the polls. The Colombian leader’s opponents have focused on rising violence, driven by drug-trafficking militias that have thousands of fighters and are considered classified as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the U.S.
“He’s given free rein to all the criminal groups that have filled the country with illegal crops,” Paloma Valencia, a conservative presidential hopeful, said from the campaign trail.
Relations had been rocky between the two leaders for months, reaching a crisis point early last month when Trump suggested Colombia could be next just after U.S. commandos extracted Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro from Caracas. But tensions were defused after an unexpectedly friendly call between the two leaders brokered by Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), who urged Trump to take the call with Petro after discussions with Daniel García-Peña, Colombia’s ambassador to Washington.
Colombian officials said they were counting on a personal rapport between Trump and Petro. Despite being on opposite sides of the political spectrum—Trump has been touting a muscular “Donroe Doctrine” in Latin America while Petro is a leftist former guerrilla and a frequent critic of U.S. foreign policy—the two also share a penchant for boasting on social media.
“Petro is not a Trump whisperer who other leaders will consult for advice, but he’s out of the doghouse for now, and that’s an improvement,” said Benjamin Gedan, the director of the Latin America Program at the Stimson Center, a nonprofit in Washington.
Despite the apparent reset between the two leaders, there are worries that Trump could interfere in the process as he has done in Argentina and Honduras.
“Should Trump get involved in Colombia’s election, it could derail the relationship yet again,” said Gedan.
Courtesy/Source: WSJ
