{"id":447813,"date":"2026-02-04T03:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T03:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447813\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T03:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T03:55:07","slug":"a-great-honor-key-takeaways-from-trumps-meeting-with-colombias-petro-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447813\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A great honor\u2019: Key takeaways from Trump\u2019s meeting with Colombia\u2019s Petro | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"

For months, United States President Donald Trump has called him a \u201csick man\u201d and an \u201cillegal drug leader\u201d.<\/p>\n

But on Tuesday, Trump welcomed his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, to the White House for their first face-to-face meeting in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Both leaders hailed the meeting as productive, while acknowledging the lingering tensions that divide them.<\/p>\n

At a news conference after their meeting, Petro waved away questions about his rocky history with Trump, whom he has publicly accused of human rights violations.<\/p>\n

Instead, he called the interaction \u201c\u200aa meeting between two equals who have different ways of thinking\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t change his way of his thinking. Neither did I. But how do you do an agreement, a pact? It\u2019s not as between twin brothers. It\u2019s between opponents,\u201d Petro said.<\/p>\n

Separately, Trump told reporters from the Oval Office that he felt good about the meeting. \u201cI thought it was terrific,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On the agenda for the two leaders were issues including the fight against transnational drug trafficking and security in Latin America.<\/p>\n

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

A White House charm offensive<\/p>\n

Over the past year, Trump has invited the media to participate in his meetings with foreign leaders, often holding news conferences with the visiting dignitaries in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

Not this time, however. The meeting between Trump and Petro lasted nearly two hours, all of it behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

But the two leaders emerged with largely positive things to say about one another.<\/p>\n

In a post on social media, Petro revealed that Trump had gifted him several items, including a commemorative photograph<\/a> of their meeting accompanied by a signed note.<\/p>\n

\u201cGustavo \u2013 a great honor. I love Colombia,\u201d it read, followed by Trump\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n

In another post<\/a>, Petro showed off a signed copy of Trump\u2019s book, The Art of the Deal. On its title page, Trump had scrawled another note to Petro: \u201cYou are great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan someone tell me what Trump said in this dedication?\u201d Petro wrote jokingly in Spanish on social media. \u201cI don\u2019t understand much English.\u201d<\/p>\n

A turning point in a tense relationship?<\/p>\n

Petro\u2019s joke appeared to be a cheeky nod to his notoriously rocky relationship with Trump.<\/p>\n

It was only six days into Trump\u2019s second term, on January 26, 2025, that he and Petro began their feud<\/a>, trading threats on social media over the fate of two US deportation flights.<\/p>\n

Petro objected to the reported human rights violations facing the deportees. Trump, meanwhile, took Petro\u2019s initial refusal to accept the flights as a threat to US \u201cnational security\u201d. Petro ultimately backed down after Trump threatened steep sanctions on imported Colombian goods.<\/p>\n

They continued to trade barbs in the months since. Petro, for instance, has condemned the deadly US attacks<\/a> on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, comparing the strikes with murder.<\/p>\n

He has also criticised Trump for carrying out a US military offensive in Venezuela to abduct then-President Nicolas Maduro. That attack, Petro said, was tantamount to \u201ckidnapping\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump, meanwhile, stripped Petro of his US visa following the Colombian leader\u2019s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, where he criticised the US and briefly joined a pro-Palestinian protest.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration also sanctioned Petro in October, blaming the left-wing leader for allowing \u201cdrug cartels to flourish\u201d.<\/p>\n

After removing Maduro from power on January 3, Trump offered a warning to Petro: he had better \u201cwatch his a**\u201d. The statement was widely interpreted to be a threat of military action against Colombia.<\/p>\n

But Trump and Petro appeared to have reached a turning point last month. On January 7, the two leaders held their first call together. Tuesday\u2019s in-person meeting marked another first in their relationship.<\/p>\n

Agreeing to disagree<\/p>\n

Despite the easing tensions, the two leaders used their public statements after the meeting to reaffirm their differences.<\/p>\n

Trump was the first to speak, holding a news conference in the Oval Office as he signed legislation to end a government shutdown.<\/p>\n

The US president, a member of the right-wing Republican Party, used the appearance to reflect on the political tensions the two leaders had in the lead-up to the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe and I weren\u2019t exactly the best of friends, but I wasn\u2019t insulted, because I\u2019d never met him,\u201d Trump told reporters.<\/p>\n

He added that Tuesday\u2019s meeting was nevertheless pleasant. \u201cI didn\u2019t know him at all, and we got along very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petro, meanwhile, held a longer news conference at the Colombian Embassy in Washington, DC, where he raised some points of divergence he had with Trump.<\/p>\n

Among the topics he mentioned was Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza, which the US has supported, and sustainable energy initiatives designed to be carbon neutral. Trump, in the past, has called the so-called green energy programmes a \u201cscam\u201d.<\/p>\n

Petro, Colombia\u2019s first left-wing leader, also reflected on his region\u2019s history with colonialism and foreign intervention. He told reporters it was important that Latin America make decisions for itself, free from any outside \u201ccoercion\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWe don\u2019t operate under blackmail,\u201d he said at one point, in an apparent reference to Trump\u2019s pressure campaigns.<\/p>\n

Differing approach to combating drug trafficking<\/p>\n

One of the primary points of contention, however, was Petro\u2019s approach to combating drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

Colombia is the world\u2019s largest producer of cocaine, responsible for 68 percent of the global supply.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has used the fight against global drug trafficking as a justification for carrying out lethal military strikes in international waters and in Venezuela, despite experts condemning the attacks as illegal under international law.<\/p>\n

It has also stripped Colombia of its certification as an ally in its global counter-narcotics operations.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s White House has said<\/a> it will consider reversing that decision if Petro takes \u201cmore aggressive action to eradicate coca and reduce cocaine production and trafficking\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Petro has rejected any attempt to label him as soft on drug trafficking, instead touting the historic drug busts his government has overseen.<\/p>\n

He made this argument yet again after Tuesday\u2019s meeting, claiming that no other Colombian administration had done as much as his to fight cocaine trafficking.<\/p>\n

Rather than take a militarised approach to destroying crops of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine, Petro argued that he has had more success with voluntary eradication programmes.<\/p>\n

This push, he said, succeeded in \u201cgetting thousands of peasant farmers to uproot the plant themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are two different methods, two different ways of understanding how to fight drug trafficking,\u201d Petro said. \u201cOne that is brutal and self-interested, and what it ends up doing is promoting mafia powers and drug traffickers, and another approach, which is intelligent, which is effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petro maintained it was more strategic to go after top drug-ring leaders than to punish impoverished rural farmers by forcibly ripping up their crops.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told President Trump, if you want an ally in fighting drug trafficking, it\u2019s going after the top kingpins,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"GustavoColombian President Gustavo Petro speaks during a news conference at the Colombian Embassy in Washington, DC, on February 3 [Jose Luis Magana\/AP]A Trumpian note<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s meeting ultimately marked yet another high-profile reversal for Trump, who has a history of shifting his relationships with world leaders.<\/p>\n

Last year, for instance, he lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a public Oval Office clash, only to warm to the wartime leader several months later.<\/p>\n

But Colombia is quickly approaching a pivotal presidential election in May, which will see Petro\u2019s left-wing coalition, the Historic Pact, seek to defend the presidency against an ascendant far right.<\/p>\n

Petro himself cannot run for consecutive terms under Colombian law. But there is speculation that Tuesday\u2019s detente with Trump may help Petro\u2019s coalition avoid US condemnation ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n

Colombia, after all, was until recently the largest recipient of US aid in South America, and it has long harboured close ties with the North American superpower. Straining those ties could therefore be seen as an election liability.<\/p>\n

While Petro acknowledged his differences with Trump during his remarks, at times he expressed certain views that overlapped with the US president\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Like Trump has in the past, Petro used part of his speech on Tuesday to question the role of the UN in maintaining global security.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aDid it not show incapacity? Isn\u2019t a reform needed?\u201d Petro asked, wondering aloud if there was \u201csomething superior to the United Nations that would bring humanity together better in a better way\u201d.<\/p>\n

But when it came to donning Trump\u2019s signature \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d baseball cap, Petro drew a line \u2013 or rather, a squiggle.<\/p>\n

On social media, he shared an adjustment he made to the cap\u2019s slogan. A jagged, Sharpie-inked \u201cS\u201d amended the phrase to include the entire Western Hemisphere: \u201cMake Americas Great Again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For months, United States President Donald Trump has called him a \u201csick man\u201d and an \u201cillegal drug leader\u201d.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,27459,1127,12,2605,2420,3140,3,111,21,19,22,20,25,1209,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-447813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-colombia","10":"tag-conflict","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-drugs","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-latin-america","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-us-canada","23":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}