Trump Warns Colombia After Petro’s “Get Rid of Trump” Remark: “We’ll Take Serious Action”
President Donald Trump issued a stern warning to Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday, firing back after the leftist leader made provocative comments suggesting Trump must be “gotten rid of.”
Petro, speaking to Univision earlier this week, snapped his fingers as he told host Daniel Coronell that “humanity has a first offramp” — calling Trump a threat to global stability and suggesting he needed to be removed from power to stop U.S. counter-narcotics policy. “The easiest way may be through Trump himself,” Petro said. “If not, get rid of Trump.”
Trump didn’t take the threat lightly.
“He’s a thug and a bad guy,” Trump told The Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olohan during an Oval Office exchange. “He’s a guy that is making a lot of drugs. He better watch it or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country.”
U.S. Aid Cut, Tariffs on the Table
President Trump revealed that he had already “pulled all payments” from the United States to Colombia as part of an ongoing campaign to force Petro’s hand in cracking down on drug trafficking. “We’re not going to keep funding countries that make us weaker and flood our streets with poison,” Trump said. “That era is over.”
Earlier this month, Trump labeled Petro an “illegal drug dealer” and accused the Colombian president of having “a fresh mouth toward America” while allowing narco operations to flourish under his watch.
The administration has reportedly discussed hitting Colombia with new trade tariffs if the Petro regime continues undermining U.S. anti-cartel efforts.
Petro Moves Closer to Venezuela’s Maduro
Petro’s growing ties to socialist strongman Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela have also drawn scrutiny. Former DEA Caracas chief Wes Tabor recently told The Daily Wire that Petro’s Marxist background has driven him to distance Colombia from the United States.
“His background is steeped in these freedom fighting, guerrilla warfare-type movements … socialism, Marxism, and things like that,” Tabor said. “And we’ve seen, more aggressively in the last year, that Colombia is siding with Nicolás Maduro.”
While Colombia had long been a top U.S. ally in the region, the Petro government has steadily reversed course, undermining joint counter-narcotics operations and leveling sharp criticism at Trump’s regional security initiatives.
War Department Hits Cartels Hard
The rising tension comes as the U.S. Department of War ramps up operations across the Caribbean. In recent weeks, American forces have destroyed at least seven cartel-linked vessels and eliminated more than two dozen suspected traffickers. One of the strikes reportedly targeted a high-value smuggling corridor near Colombia’s territorial waters.
Petro responded by accusing the United States of killing a “fisherman” and violating Colombia’s sovereignty. “U.S. government officials have committed a murder,” Petro claimed on social media. “They violated our sovereignty in territorial waters.”
Trump dismissed the complaint and doubled down on his message: “We’ll do what it takes to keep America safe. If Petro doesn’t like that, maybe he should stop protecting the cartels.”