Trump invites Colombian president to White House

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

In a matter of days, President Donald Trump has gone from threatening to strike Colombia to inviting its leader to the White House.

Following a call between Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday evening, the pair appears to have had a productive conversation leading to a White House meeting in the “near future.”

“It was a Great Honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had,” the president posted to his Truth Social account. “I appreciated his call and tone.”

Prior to the call, tensions between the two leaders appeared high, with Trump threatening military action as of Sunday evening.

Onboard Air Force One during his return to Washington, the president was asked if the U.S. could target Colombia next on the heels of Saturday’s strike in Venezuela and the capture of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Trump responded: “It sounds good to me.”

The president accused Petro of making and selling drugs to the U.S.

“Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,” Trump told reporters.

The South American leader posted a warning to Trump, indicating any U.S. action in Colombia would be met with resistance.

“If you detain a president whom much of my people want and respect, you will unleash the people’s jaguar,” Petro posted on X.

Petro appears to be trying to reassure the U.S. of his country’s commitment to fighting drug trafficking ahead of the proposed meeting.

“Dear U.S. Representative, Colombia has put 300,000 killed in the fight against drug trafficking, and in my government we have already seized 2,800 tons of cocaine and in the world’s seizure operations, Colombian intelligence has participated in 63% of them,” Petro posted to X on Thursday morning. “We have destroyed 13,000 cocaine laboratories in just three years. Remember it: my government is the one that has seized the most cocaine in the entire history of that substance in the world.”