Trump invites Colombian president to White House after threatening his country with military strike
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
The mainstream read on this story will be that Trump “whiplashed” from threat to charm, as if diplomacy is supposed to sound like a graduate seminar. That framing misses what’s often happening in public: signaling leverage and then testing whether there’s a deal to be made. Colombia is not a symbolic relationship.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
President Donald Trump has abruptly changed his tone about his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro. Trump said Wednesday that they had exchanged a friendly phone call and he had invited the leader of the South American country to the White House.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
The mainstream read on this story will be that Trump “whiplashed” from threat to charm, as if diplomacy is supposed to sound like a graduate seminar. That framing misses what’s often happening in public: signaling leverage and then testing whether there’s a deal to be made.
Colombia is not a symbolic relationship. It sits at the center of drug flows, migration routes, and regional security. If Petro wants a White House visit, he should come prepared to show results on counternarcotics cooperation and border enforcement. Public trust erodes when allies get photo ops without measurable follow-through.
The point is not bravado. It is credible deterrence, rule of law, and national security backed by fairness for American communities paying the price for fentanyl and trafficking. Diplomacy is fine. But it should be conditioned on outcomes, not vibes.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.