Trump Calls Petro ‘Terrific’ After Surprise White House Thaw

Published: 04 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

After months of sharp rhetoric and public insults, US President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro struck a notably conciliatory tone following a high-profile meeting at the White House, signalling a potential thaw in relations between Washington and Bogotá.

The closed-door bilateral talks, which lasted around two hours, covered a wide range of sensitive regional issues, including drug trafficking, energy cooperation and regional diplomacy. While no formal joint statement was issued, both leaders emerged with warm words for one another, a marked contrast to the acrimony that had defined their relationship in recent months.

President Trump, speaking to reporters after the meeting, described Petro as “terrific” and said the two leaders had “got along very well”. He added that discussions had been “very good” and hinted at a shift in Washington’s posture towards Colombia, including a possible review of sanctions imposed last year on Petro’s administration.

Those sanctions were introduced amid allegations of links between senior Colombian figures and the drug trade, claims Petro has repeatedly dismissed as baseless and politically motivated. On Tuesday, Trump suggested he was now working on lifting those measures, though no specific timeline or conditions were outlined.

For his part, President Petro characterised the meeting as “optimistic” and “constructive”, particularly in the context of joint efforts to combat drug trafficking. Speaking later at the Colombian embassy, he acknowledged that the two leaders held sharply different views on how to address the problem, but stressed the importance of cooperation.

“There are undoubtedly different ways of viewing the problem,” Petro said. “Some approaches are aggressive, others perhaps more open to being built collectively. We try to hold on to what brings us together rather than what separates us.”

The friendly tone marked a dramatic shift from the heated exchanges that had preceded the meeting. Trump had previously referred to Petro as a “sick man”, while the Colombian president had accused his US counterpart of modelling immigration policies on those of the Nazis. Those comments had raised fears of a deepening diplomatic rift between the two countries, long-standing allies in the region.

Photographs released after the meeting suggested a relaxed atmosphere, with both leaders smiling and appearing at ease. Petro later posted a handwritten note apparently penned by Trump, reading “a great honour – I love Colombia”, alongside a photograph of the pair together. The gesture was widely shared on social media in Colombia, where reactions ranged from cautious optimism to outright surprise.

Substantively, Petro said the two leaders discussed the possibility of exporting Venezuelan gas through Colombia, an idea that would involve cooperation between Bogotá, Caracas and Washington. He argued that sanctions and regional competition had left all three countries economically disadvantaged and suggested that pragmatic energy cooperation could benefit the wider region.

Trump also confirmed that both leaders had agreed on the need to confront the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia’s largest remaining guerrilla group. The ELN has been responsible for a series of high-profile attacks and has complicated Petro’s efforts to pursue his “total peace” agenda through negotiations with armed groups.

Drug trafficking was another central topic. Ahead of the meeting, Colombian officials had indicated they would present detailed evidence of their counter-narcotics efforts, including data on cocaine seizures and the destruction of drug laboratories. Petro told reporters that he had urged Trump to focus on dismantling the upper echelons of international drug networks rather than concentrating solely on production and transit routes.

“I told him you need to go after the kingpins,” Petro said. “The top tier of drug traffickers isn’t what you might imagine.” He added that many senior figures in the drug trade were operating from outside Colombia, including in Europe, the United States and the United Arab Emirates, and called for closer intelligence cooperation to track and apprehend them.

Another unexpected outcome of the talks was Petro’s claim that Trump had agreed to mediate in a trade dispute between Colombia and Ecuador. Details of the dispute remain unclear, and the White House has not publicly confirmed any mediating role, but the suggestion underscored the broader diplomatic scope of the meeting.

The change in tone follows months of escalating tensions. Trump had repeatedly accused Petro’s government of failing to curb the flow of drugs into the US and had even suggested that expanded US strikes against drug traffickers could one day include targets in Colombia. Petro, meanwhile, had accused Washington of imperial overreach and criticised US military actions and immigration policies.

In an interview with the BBC last month, Petro accused the US of treating sovereign nations as part of its “empire”, comments that further strained relations. Against that backdrop, Tuesday’s meeting appeared designed to reset the relationship, or at least stabilise it.

In a nod to Trump’s famous campaign slogan, Petro called for a “pact for life” to help “make the Americas great again”. He was careful, however, to stress that neither leader had fundamentally changed their worldview.

“He did not change his way of thinking on many issues, and neither did I,” Petro said. “A pact is between opponents who are able to find a path toward a shared human brotherhood.”

Whether the cordiality displayed in Washington translates into lasting policy shifts remains to be seen. But for now, the meeting marked a rare moment of warmth between two leaders whose relationship had seemed defined by mutual suspicion and sharp words, offering at least the possibility of a more pragmatic chapter in US-Colombia relations.