"We get along very well": after months of tension, Trump and Petro end cordial meeting at the White House

President Donald Trump, and his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, held their first face-to-face meeting at the White House on Tuesday marking a complete turnaround from their multiple public confrontations and diplomatic threats.

The meeting, described as "cordial" by the parties, lasted more than two hours and took place behind closed doors, focusing on key issues such as the fight against drug trafficking and the political situation in Venezuela following thecapture of dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Despite the absence of an official welcoming ceremony, the images released showed both leaders conversing in a relaxed manner in the Oval Office, accompanied by their respective delegations. Present at the meeting, in addition to Secretary of State Marco Rubio was Colombian-born Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, a strong critic of Petro.

In later remarks, Trump briefly referred to the meeting with Petro: "Yeah, we did we worked on it and we got along very well He and I weren't exactly the best of friends, but I wasn't insulted because I never met him I didn't know him at all and we got along very well and we are we're working on that we're working on some other things too, including sanctions and No, we had a very good meeting."

For his part, Petro described the meeting as "positive" and highlighted an "optimistic air" amid tensions between the United States and Colombia. During his press conference from the Colombian embassy in Washington D.C., the Colombian president said that they discussed the economic reactivation of Venezuela and the role of the U.S. and Colombia in this process.

The meeting, inevitably, was marked by previous confrontations between the two presidents. At the end of 2025, Trump called Petro a "leader of illegal drug trafficking", and in January, following Maduro's capture, hinted at military action against Colombia. Petro, in turn, has harshly criticized Trump throughout his term, including the U.S. operation against Maduro, calling it a "kidnapping" and "violation of Latin American sovereignty."

Petro, even, in the framework of the UN General Assembly, appeared in the streets of New York with a megaphone advocating openly for sedition against Trump by the U.S. Army. That episode led to the revocation of the Colombian president's visa.

Despite these tensions, a phone call between the two leaders on January 7 appeared to soften and put relations back on track. Trump described the conversation as "a great honor" and extended an invitation to Petro to visit The White House.

During the meeting, Petro asked Trump to mediate in a trade dispute between Colombia and Ecuador and presented a list of drug traffickers who, according to him, reside outside Colombia, including in the United States. In addition, they discussed the possibility of Colombia playing a role in stabilizing Venezuela.

Trump's symbolic gesture of signing a copy of his book "The Art of the Deal" with the dedication "Gustavo: a great honor. I love Colombia" was shared by Petro on the social network 'X', accompanied by a photograph of both leaders in the Oval Office.

Although significant differences persist in political and ideological terms between Trump and Petro, the cordial meeting seems to push for a reconfiguration of bilateral relations between the United States and Colombia.