❓WHAT HAPPENED: U.S. President Donald J. Trump criticized Colombian President Gustavo Petro, calling him a “lunatic” and the “worst president they’ve ever had,” while announcing an end to U.S. funding to Colombia over its cocaine production.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Trump, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
📍WHEN & WHERE: Comments were made Sunday aboard Air Force One, with additional remarks on social media from Petro and Senator Graham.
💬KEY QUOTE: “They make cocaine, they have cocaine factories… I’m stopping all payments to Colombia because they don’t have anything to do with their fight against drugs.” – Donald Trump
🎯IMPACT: The crackdown on Colombia over its cocaine production comes as the U.S. military is expanding its anti-cartel operations in Latin America and the Carribean, with a specific focus on Nicolás Maduro’s nacro-regime in Venezuela.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump on Sunday doubled down on his criticism of Colombia, calling its radical Marxist president, Gustavo Petro, a “lunatic” and the “worst president they’ve ever had” as he reiterated his vow to halt all payments to the Latin American country over its cocaine production and renewed support of neighboring Venezuala’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.
“They make drugs, they refine drugs, they make cocaine, they have cocaine factories,” Trump said while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One. He added: “They have no fight against drugs, and I’m stopping all payments to Colombia because they don’t have anything to do with their fight against drugs.”
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) confirmed the move on Sunday in a post on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “President Trump … informed me that he is going to be hitting Colombia, not only their drug dealers and traders, but also where it hurts, in the wallet. He will be announcing major Tariffs against the Country of Colombia, today or tomorrow.”
Colombia’s President Petro pushed back on social media in a series of posts from Sunday into Monday morning. “Mr. Trump, Colombia has never been rude to the USA; on the contrary, it has greatly admired its culture,” Petro—a former member of the communist guerrilla group 19th of April Movement (M-19)—wrote.
“But you are rude and ignorant toward Colombia… I don’t do business, like you do; I am a socialist, I believe in aid and the common good and in the common goods of humanity, the greatest of all: life, put in danger by your oil,” he continued, adding: “If I am not a merchant, then much less a drug trafficker; in my heart there is no greed.”
The far-left Colombian leader made a series of series of subsequent posts touting his government’s alleged actions targeting the cocaine trade and criminal drug cartels. He went on to argue the U.S. war on drugs is “a failed strategy” and likened President Trump’s authorization of military strikes on drug boats to civilian deaths during Israel’s war against Hamas.
“[I]n the Caribbean, missiles fall like in Gaza on boats of people who, whether involved in the drug trade or not, have the right to live,” Petro wrote early Monday. “If Trump’s strategy, to secure Venezuela’s oil cheaply, combines the so-called war on drugs with the real pursuit of oil, it is a double failure.”
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