Updated February 3, 2026 at 3:26 PM CST
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — President Trump welcomed one of his most strident critics to the White House on Tuesday: Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
While many other world leaders have flattered or bowed down to Trump, Petro has gone out of his way to defy the American president. The Colombian leader has lambasted Trump on everything from his lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific, to his support for Israel's invasion of Gaza.
For his part, Trump has accused his Colombian counterpart of flooding the U.S. with cocaine and at one point hinted that he could be targeted by the U.S. military.
However, after a two-hour meeting on Tuesday, the tone was surprisingly amicable. A photo shared by Petro on X showed him and Trump shaking hands and smiling, a stark contrast to their past exchanges. Trump's message on the photo read: "Gustavo – A great honor – I love Colombia."
In a follow-up post, Petro shared a photo of a signed copy of Trump's Art of the Deal book, which included a personal inscription from the president: "You are great." Petro joked in Spanish about the dedication: "What did Trump mean to say to me in this dedication? I don't understand English very well."
Trump and Petro make for an odd couple. Trump started out as a real estate tycoon, while Petro got his start preaching revolution as part of a left-wing guerrilla group before he disarmed and jumped into Colombian politics.
Their first clash came shortly after Trump was sworn in for his second term in January 2025 when Petro refused to accept U.S. military flights bringing undocumented immigrants back to Colombia. Trump responded by threatening a devastating trade war with Colombia, and Petro was forced to retreat.
Trump then mercilessly mocked Petro, telling an audience: "Remember, Colombia said: 'We will not take them back!' And within about 13 minutes, I think, (Colombia said) 'We would love to take them back.'"
In his most provocative move, Petro, who was attending the U.N. General Assembly last September, took to the streets of New York with a bullhorn to publicly urge American soldiers to disobey Trump. That prompted Washington to revoke Petro's U.S. visa and to place financial sanctions on him, his wife, and his interior minister.
"Petro is trying to rally the world to oppose Donald Trump, or at least to resist him. I think a lot of people find that inspiring," said Sergio Guzmán, director of the Bogotá consulting firm Colombia Risk Analysis. "But his actions are also hurting the people in this country."
Indeed, Trump has suspended immigrant visas for Colombians, slapped higher tariffs on Colombian exports to the U.S. and threatened to send in U.S. troops to destroy the country's drug trafficking organizations.
Cocaine production in Colombia hit a record high at about 3,000 tons in 2024, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. That's more than double the figure for 2021, the year before Petro was sworn in as president. Trump has even gone so far as to label Petro, without evidence, as a "drug leader."
Following the U.S. raid last month that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to New York to face drug charges, Trump suggested to reporters aboard Air Force One that Petro could meet a similar fate.
But unlike Venezuela, Colombia has been for decades Washington's closest ally in Latin America and a key trade partner. It is often portrayed as a U.S. foreign policy success story given that huge sums of American aid helped bring Colombia back from the brink in the 1990s and early 2000s when the country was under siege from guerrilla groups and cocaine kingpins.
"Both on the Republican and on the Democratic side, there is an understanding that Colombia worked out well and that this is not a partner that you want to alienate," Guzmán said.
Finally, after much backdoor diplomacy, Petro announced in a speech last month that for the first time ever, he had spoken with President Trump. Their phone conversation lasted nearly an hour, with Trump later commenting that it was "a great honor" to speak with Petro.
"It's hard to say how hunky-dory the relationship is going to remain, but there is this détente right now because the two men had a chance to talk to each other," said Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America, a research and advocacy group. They are "two populist leaders who are outspoken, who tweet 50 times a day. They are kind of similar personalities."
At least for now, their rapport remains friendly. But with Petro's term set to end in August, it's likely their paths will diverge sooner rather than later.
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