Trump showers Colombian president with praise

Weeks after slamming newly elected Colombian President Gustavo Petro as a “sick man” for allegedly funneling cocaine into the U.S., President Donald Trump praised him as “terrific” after a assembly at the White House that lasted almost two hours on Tuesday.

The face-to-face assembly got here weeks after he threatened army motion against Colombia to stem the alleged movement of the illicit drug into the U.S.

After the assembly, Trump admitted that he and Petro have not been “the best of friends,” suggesting that he’d felt insulted by the Colombian president because he did not know him and because the 2 had never even met.

But afterward, he modified his tune, stating, “We had a very good meeting. I thought he was terrific.” He added that the pair mentioned cooperation in counternarcotics operations as properly as a quantity of other topics, which he did not delve into.

Trump added that Petro — who has continued to criticize Trump and the U.S. operation to seize former Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro — has develop into more prepared to work with his administration.

And the great emotions appeared mutual — Petro posted a image of Trump’s e-book The Art of the Deal on X, which incorporates a signed inscription studying, “You are great.”

Ironically, the Colombian president captioned the post in Spanish, “What did Trump mean to say to me with this dedication? I don’t understand English very well.”

In another interview with Colombia’s Caracol Radio, Petro said he requested Trump to help mediate an escalating commerce struggle between his nation and Ecuador.

But past blood between the 2 continues to loom. In the times prior to Tuesday’s in-person assembly, Petro, a leftist politician, continued to poke at the far-right conservative U.S. president, calling Trump an “accomplice to genocide” in the Gaza Strip and asserting that the seize of Maduro was a kidnapping.

And before he left Washington, Petro called on Colombians to take to the streets of Bogotá during the White House assembly. He deliberate to maintain a news convention at the Colombian Embassy in Washington later on Tuesday.

For his U.S. go to, Petro introduced along Foreign Relations Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez Suárez and Ambassador Daniel García-Peña, while Trump was joined by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), who was born in Colombia.

Just minutes before the assembly began, Petro, in a video shared by his workplace, described himself as a politician who has denounced and prosecuted drug traffickers.

Accompanied by one of his daughters and his granddaughter, he lamented that most of his kids live outdoors of Colombia, in exile, due to the combat he is waging against drug trafficking. “We have truly suffered its effects directly,” Petro said.

US-Colombia relations shift after years of cooperation

Historically, Colombia has been a U.S. ally. For the past 30 years, the U.S. has labored intently with Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fend off insurgent teams and increase financial development in rural areas. Colombia is also designated by the U.S. as a major non-NATO ally.

But relations between the leaders have been strained by Trump’s massing U.S. forces in the area for unprecedented lethal army strikes concentrating on suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and the jap Pacific. At least 126 people have been killed in 36 identified strikes.

In October, Trump’s Republican administration announced it was imposing sanctions on Petro, his household and a member of his authorities over accusations of involvement in the global drug commerce.

The Treasury Department leveled the penalties against Petro; his spouse, Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; his son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos; and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti.

The sanctions, which had to be waived to permit Petro to journey to Washington this week, got here after the U.S. administration in September announced it was including Colombia to a checklist of nations failing to cooperate in the drug struggle for the first time in three a long time.

Then got here the audacious army operation last month to seize Maduro and his spouse to face federal drug conspiracy fees, a transfer that Petro has forcefully denounced. Following Maduro’s ouster, Trump put Colombia on discover and ominously warned Petro he could possibly be next.

Colombia is “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” Trump said of Petro last month. “And he’s not gonna be doing it very long, let me tell you.”

But a few days later, tensions eased considerably after a call between the leaders. Trump said Petro in their hourlong dialog explained “the drug situation and other disagreements.” And Trump prolonged an invitation to Petro for the White House go to.

Trump skips greeting Petro, who comes bearing items

The Colombian president said he’d deliberate to use the assembly to element his nation’s counternarcotics initiatives to Trump. And in a diplomatic gesture amid the acrimony, Colombian officers said Petro got here bearing items, including a signature Wounaan indigenous basket from Colombia’s Chocó area for Trump and a handmade robe crafted by indigenous artisans from Nariño for first woman Melania Trump.

Petro’s workplace launched a picture of Trump and Petro chatting as they walked the colonnade toward the Oval Office at the start of the go to. García-Peña, Colombia’s envoy to Washington, is captured in the body holding a copy of Trump’s e-book “The Art of the Deal.”

Trump skipped on greeting Petro upon his arrival and posing for a {photograph} with him in entrance of the North Portico of the White House before a gathered press, a set piece for most international leaders’ visits. Instead, Petro arrived at a aspect entrance of the White House along West Executive Avenue, minutes before the start of their scheduled assembly.

The two leaders didn’t ship joint statements before the press, one thing Trump usually does at the start or end of most chief visits.