For months, United States President Donald Trump has called him a “sick man” and an “illegal drug leader.”
But on Tuesday, Trump welcomed his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro to the White House for their first face-to-face meeting in Washington, DC.
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The two leaders hailed the meeting as productive, while acknowledging the tension that had divided them.
At a news conference after their meeting, Petro brushed aside questions about his rocky history with Trump, whom he has publicly accused of human rights abuses.
Instead, he called interaction “a meeting between two equals with different ways of thinking.”
“He hasn’t changed his thinking. Neither have I. But how do you make an agreement, an agreement? It’s not like twins. It’s between opposites,” Petro said.
Separately, Trump told reporters from the Oval Office that he felt good about the meeting. “I thought it was pretty cool,” he said.
Issues on the agenda for both leaders included the fight against international drug trafficking and security in Latin America.
Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s meeting.
White House charm offensive
Over the past year, Trump has invited the media to attend his meetings with foreign leaders, often holding news conferences with visiting dignitaries in the Oval Office.
But not this time. The meeting between Trump and Petro lasted nearly two hours, all behind closed doors.
But both leaders emerged with largely positive things to say about each other.
In a post on social media, Petro revealed that Trump had gifted him several items, including a Commemorative photograph of their meeting with a signed note.
“Gustavo – a great honor. I love Colombia,” it read, followed by Trump’s signature.
in another PostPetro showed a signed copy of Trump’s book The Art of the Deal. On its title page, Trump scrawled another note to Petro: “You’re great.”
“Can someone tell me what Trump said in this dedication?” Petro posted a joke in Spanish on social media. “I don’t understand much English.”
A turning point in a strained relationship?
Petro’s joke was a cheeky reference to his notoriously rocky relationship with Trump.
On January 26, 2025, just six days into Trump’s second term, he and Petro Their fight startedThreats trade on social media over the fate of two US refugee flights.
Petro objected to the human rights violations faced by the refugees. Meanwhile, Trump’s initial refusal to accept Petro flights threatens US “national security”. Petro eventually backed down after Trump threatened to impose tougher sanctions on imported Colombian goods.
He continued to trade barbs in the months that followed. Petro, for example, is Condemned America’s deadly attacks On boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, murder is compared to murder.
He has also criticized Trump for launching a US military invasion of Venezuela to kidnap then-President Nicolas Maduro. The attack, Petro said, was like a “kidnapping.”
Trump revoked Petro’s US visa after the Colombian leader attended the United Nations General Assembly, where he criticized the US and briefly joined pro-Palestinian protests.
The Trump administration sanctioned Petro in October, blaming the left-wing leader for “allowing drug cartels to flourish.”
After Maduro was ousted from power on January 3, Trump issued a warning to Petro: He better watch “his a**.” The statement was widely interpreted as a threat of military action against Colombia.
But Trump and Petro appeared to have reached a tipping point last month. Both the leaders met together on January 7. Tuesday’s in-person meeting marked another first in their relationship.
Agree to disagree
Despite the easing of tensions, the two leaders used their public statements after the meeting to reaffirm their differences.
Trump was the first to hold a news conference in the Oval Office as he signed legislation to end the government shutdown.
The US president, a member of the right-wing Republican Party, used the scene to reflect on the political tensions between the two leaders at the forefront of the meeting.
“He and I weren’t very good friends, but I wasn’t insulted, because I never met him,” Trump told reporters.
He added that Tuesday’s meeting was nevertheless pleasant. “I didn’t know him at all, and we got along great.”
Petro, meanwhile, held a lengthy news conference at the Colombian embassy in Washington, DC, where he laid out some of the points of disagreement with Trump.
Among the topics he mentioned were Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which is supported by the US, and sustainable energy initiatives designed to be carbon neutral. Trump has called so-called green energy programs a “scam” in the past.
Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing leader, also reflected on his region’s history, including colonialism and foreign intervention. He told reporters that it was important for Latin America to decide for itself, free from any outside “coercion”.
“We don’t operate under blackmail,” he said at one point in an apparent reference to Trump’s pressure campaign.
Different approaches to drug production
One of the primary points of contention, however, was Petro’s approach to combating drug trafficking.
Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer, accounting for 68 percent of the global supply.
Despite experts condemning the attacks as illegal under international law, the Trump administration has used the fight against global drug trafficking as justification for deadly military strikes in international waters and in Venezuela.
It has stripped Colombia of its certification as an ally in its global anti-narcotics operations.
Trump’s White House has been said He said he would consider reversing the decision if Petro “takes more aggressive action to eradicate coca and reduce the production and trafficking of cocaine”.
But Petro has rejected any attempt to label him as soft on drug trafficking, instead citing historic drug busts overseen by his government.
He reiterated that argument after Tuesday’s meeting, claiming that the Colombian administration has not done enough to fight cocaine trafficking.
Instead of taking a military approach to destroying coca crops – the raw ingredient for cocaine – Petro argued on Tuesday that he has had more success with voluntary eradication programs.
The move, he said, had succeeded in “thousands of peasant farmers uprooting the trees themselves”.
“These are two different methods, two different ways of understanding how to fight drug trafficking,” Petro said. “One that is cruel and selfish, and what it does is encourage mafia power and drug traffickers, and the other approach, which is intelligent, which is effective.”
Petro said it was more strategic to go after drug-ring leaders than to punish poor rural farmers by forcibly destroying their crops.
“I told President Trump, if you want an ally to fight drug trafficking, it’s going after the top kingpin,” he said.
Trumpian note
Tuesday’s meeting ultimately marked another high-profile reversal for Trump, who has a history of shifting relationships with other world leaders.
Last year, for example, he attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a public Oval Office showdown, only to warm to the wartime leader months later.
But Colombia is fast approaching a crucial presidential election in May, in which Petro’s left-wing coalition, a historic pact, will try to defend the presidency against a surging right.
According to Colombian law, Petro himself cannot run for consecutive terms. But there is speculation that Tuesday’s arrest with Trump could help Petro’s alliance avoid US protests ahead of the vote.
Colombia, after all, was the largest recipient of US aid in South America and has long maintained close ties with the North American superpower. So straining this relationship can be seen as an electoral liability.
While Petro acknowledged his differences with Trump during his remarks, at times he expressed views that overlapped with those of the US president.
As Trump has done in the past, Petro used part of his speech on Tuesday to question the UN’s role in maintaining global security.
“Didn’t he show incompetence? Doesn’t he need reform?” “Is there something better than the United Nations that would better unite humanity,” Petro asked aloud.
But when it came to donning Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, Petro drew a line — or rather, a squiggle.
On social media, he shared the adjustments he made to Cap’s announcement. A jagged, Sharp-inked “S” modified the phrase to include the entire Western Hemisphere: “Make America Great Again.”