Colombian President Gustavo Petro held his first in-person meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday. The private session lasted about two hours and came amid heightened tensions following a U.S. operation linked to Venezuela last month.
After the meeting, Petro said Trump had offered to mediate a growing trade dispute between Colombia and Ecuador. Trump called the encounter ‘very good’ and said the two leaders were working on sanctions and other matters. ‘My impression of the meeting a few hours ago is first and foremost that it was positive,’ Petro told reporters.
Trump signed a copy of his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, for Petro with the inscription ‘You are great.’ Petro shared a photo of the signed book on X and joked that he did not fully understand the English dedication.
The White House released a photo of the two leaders in the Oval Office but did not immediately provide details of the discussions. Administration officials said counternarcotics efforts and security cooperation were on the agenda.
Petro and Trump have had a contentious relationship: Petro criticized U.S. moves in the Caribbean after the Venezuela operation, while Trump has repeatedly threatened Colombia over cocaine shipments to the United States. Trump previously called Petro a ‘sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States’ and said a similar U.S. operation in Colombia ‘sounds good to me.’ Despite the sharp rhetoric, both leaders described a follow-up phone call in positive terms, and Petro agreed to this Washington visit.
In recent weeks Colombia resumed extraditions after sending a drug lord to the U.S., restarting transfers that had been paused amid negotiations with armed groups tied to the drug trade. Colombia also agreed last week to accept U.S. deportation flights. The Trump administration had imposed sanctions on Petro and family members, accusing him of failing to curb cocaine flows; those sanctions were waived to allow Petro’s trip to the U.S.
Senators JD Vance and Marco Rubio were present in the Oval Office for parts of the meeting. Colombia remains a longstanding U.S. partner in Latin America and a key component of U.S. counternarcotics strategy.