Trumps tough 6-word warning to Colombian | Political News

U.S. President Donald Trump told Colombian President Gustavo Petro that “he’s got to watch his a–” amid rising tensions between the Trump administration and Latin American leaders.

Trump was requested during a Monday night press convention what his response was to Petro saying that the U.S. “invaded” the southwest and ought to return the “stolen” land. Petro made the daring demand amid Trump’s escalating operations in the area, from hanging more than a dozen alleged drug-trafficking ships to seizing alleged sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela. Both leaders have been issuing tit-for-tat verbal assaults amid U.S. army escalations in the area.

“[Petro] has to watch because he has drug factories. They make cocaine in Colombia,” Trump said. “He’s no friend of the United States. He’s very bad, a very bad guy.

“He’s gotta watch his a– because he makes cocaine and they despatched it into the United States of America from Colombia,” he continued.

“We love the Colombian people. I really like the Colombian people. They’re great people, energetic, good, great, but their new chief is a troublemaker.

Trump went on to declare that there are three major cocaine factories in Colombia that the U.S. is monitoring, warning Petro, “He better watch it. He better close up those cocaine factories. He better close them up fast.”

Trump has been significantly vocal against the leaders of Venezuela and Colombia amid the administration’s crackdown on drug crimes domestically and overseas.

However, critics across the aisle, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have raised suspicions about the administration’s intentions behind escalating the drug struggle by taking army motion.

For instance, Paul notes the Trump administration pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years in U.S. prison after being convicted on drug trafficking and weapons expenses.

Petro has said that most of the U.S. army vessel strike victims have been Colombian nationals. More than 100 people have been killed by the two-dozen-plus U.S. army strikes that started in September.

Paul is among many lawmakers across the aisle who have fiercely denounced the Trump administration’s actions in the Caribbean Sea and jap Pacific.

Defense Secretary Hegseth is presently going through a congressional investigation after a report emerged in The Washington Post, alleging that he ordered a second strike on a ship that killed two people who initially survived the assault.

Hegseth has denied accusations that he acted unlawfully. It comes shortly after he also confronted inquiries over his function in Signalgate, in which top U.S. officers unintentionally leaked struggle plans against the Houthis in Yemen to a U.S. journalist.