President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s roughly two-hour meeting on Tuesday went off without any suspected major disagreements, weeks after Trump slammed the foreign leader as a “sick man.”
The two leaders have a contentious relationship, with their combative personalities and history of publicly sparring over threats of military action last year, as the U.S. routinely conducted 36 strikes against suspected drug cartel boats in the Caribbean, killing at least 126 people.
Petro also needed a special visa to visit the U.S. after it was revoked due to calling on American soldiers to disobey Trump during a speech to a pro-Palestinian crowd.
Petro is an anti-imperialist Leftist in contrast to the conservative Trump. But on Tuesday, both leaders had positive words after their closed-door meeting.
“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 at all. And we got along very well,” Trump said while speaking from the Oval Office after Petro left the White House.
“We’re working on some other things too, including sanctions. And we had a very good meeting. I thought he was terrific,” Trump continued. “We got along great.”
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Petro also shared a photo of the two men shaking hands, along with a written letter from Trump that said, “A great honor. I love Colombia,” on social media.
The meeting on Tuesday was an attempt to de-escalate tensions, as Trump has repeatedly claimed Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, is flooding the U.S. with cocaine.
The two leaders were expected to discuss “the fight against transnational organized crime, especially at the border, regional security issues, and joint economic opportunities.”
However, Petro did not receive the traditional military honor guard or ceremonial protocol afforded to a foreign leader visiting the White House, nor did the two presidents release a joint statement. But the White House did release photos from the bilateral meeting.
The rancor between Petro and the president appeared to ratchet after Trump’s capture of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in early January, threatening that Colombia could be next. But the two men had an hourlong phone call days after Trump’s threat, which helped ease the feud.
“He’s been very nice over the last month or two. They were certainly critical before that, but somehow after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice. He changed his attitude very much…. I look forward to seeing him,” Trump said on Monday before he met with Petro. “We’re going to be talking about drugs because tremendous amounts of drugs come out of his country… So we’re going to have a good meeting.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed those remarks on Tuesday, telling reporters, “I spoke with the president before the meeting, and he was in a very positive headspace, and he was looking forward to sitting down with President Petro to have a conversation.”
After leaving the White House, Petro told the Spanish-language outlet Caracol Radio that “he likes “frank gringos, who say what they feel.”
