US President Trump Meets Colombian President Petro at the White House for First Time

The White House meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday marked a tactical de-escalation after months of public sparring, but produced no announced agreements, underscoring how fragile the reset remains across sanctions policy, counternarcotics cooperation, and regional diplomacy.

The roughly two-hour encounter, closed to media, was their first face-to-face since Petro’s 2022 election. Both leaders struck upbeat notes afterward while stopping short of detailing concrete outcomes.

Trump said they were “working on” counter-narcotics cooperation. Petro posted a photo of the pair shaking hands alongside a handwritten note from Trump reading, “Gustavo - A great honor - I love Colombia.”

From Ideological Barbs to Optics Reset

The meeting followed a brief thaw after a January phone call that both sides described positively, leading to Petro’s invitation to Washington. The tone shift contrasted with earlier exchanges. On Jan. 10, Petro accused Washington of imperial overreach, saying: “The United States sees itself as an empire, without regard for the rights of nations, especially those of Latin America.”

Trump, for his part, had labeled Petro an “illegal drug leader” in October and in January floated military action against Colombia.

Ahead of the visit, Trump had tried to frame the reset in his usual style.

Gustavo Petro has been very nice over the last month or two. He was certainly critical before that, he became very nice after the Maduro raid. We will be talking about drugs, we are going to have a good meeting.

U.S. President Donald Trump

Sanctions and Competing Doctrines

Sanctions emerged as a core fault line. Petro said after the meeting that Trump signaled skepticism about punitive tools: “Trump told me he doesn’t believe in sanctions and doesn’t see them as rational in this particar case”, adding that this was not a path of sanctions but a path of freedom. “Anything else only builds a path where nothing remains, but explosives, bombs, death and blood” Petro said.

Petro himself remains under U.S. sanctions imposed in October for alleged but unproven links to the drug trade, which he denies. Trump told reporters the two leaders were “working on sanctions,” without elaboration.

Petro reframed the drug trade after the meeting, saying its command centers are not in Colombia but in “Dubai, Madrid, and Miami,” adding that he had shared with Trump the identities of what he called the “bosses of the bosses.” He also said he asked Trump to help capture major traffickers living outside Colombia.

Counternarcotics, Ecuador & Symbolic Gesture

Beyond drugs and sanctions, Petro said he requested U.S. mediation in a diplomatic dispute with Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, a Trump ally, and that Trump agreed to place a call.

The optics of rapprochement extended to lighter moments: Petro praised Trump’s Oval Office renovations - heavy on gold leaf - saying, “The design was spectacular.” He added that he wrote on Trump’s red cap, “Make the Americas great,” presenting the gesture as a call for mutual respect across the region and framing it as a symbolic appeal for cooperation between what he described as two different civilizations.

Petro framed the gesture as civilizational outreach, one that can only be done through respect between two different civilizations. “This is a pact for life, and only freedom can grow within life itself” he said.

Colombia’s strategic weight sharpened the stakes. The country is the world’s top producer of coca and hosts several U.S.-designated terrorist organizations. While Petro has shifted away from forced eradication, his government says seizures and interdiction have increased, even as coca cultivation has climbed under his tenure.

Alliance Management Under Strain

For Washington, Colombia remains a cornerstone partner in the hemisphere. For Bogota, the meeting tested whether ideological distance can coexist with operational cooperation.

The White House encounter delivered a pause in escalation rather than a policy reset, pairing cordial rhetoric with unresolved questions over sanctions relief, counternarcotics tactics, and regional mediation.