After forcing Colombia to back off, White House claims US is respected again

Donald Trump scored an early victory with a coercive foreign policy based on tariffs and tough powers over Colombia’s controversial decision to refuse migrant repatriation flights.

The president has earlier unleashed swift and painful punishment on U.S. allies, including the most public attempts to do so, yet to set an example for a country that has leapt past him and asserted superiority in the Western Hemisphere.

The crisis erupted when Colombian President Gustavo Petro blocked a U.S. military flight landing undocumented immigrants in a move to honor one of Trump’s most famous campaign promises.

The U.S. president has seized the opportunity to show his supporters how difficult it is and to show other countries in Latin America the cost of resisting migrant deportations.

After hours of tension with Bogotá, the White House said Colombia had agreed to accept migrant flights, including military aircraft, and that tariffs would be waived before the deal could be implemented.

“Today’s events make it clear to the world that America is respected again,” White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said in a statement late Sunday. “President Trump will continue to fiercely protect us. The country’s sovereignty, he expects all other countries in the world to fully cooperate and accept the deportation of their citizens who are illegally present in the United States.”

Colombia’s foreign minister quickly confirmed that U.S. deportation flights had resumed. Petro’s reversal represents a concession to American power and Trump’s aggressive personal style. It is also likely to inflame government officials who view the threat of tariffs not just as a traditional device in trade disputes but also as a tool to intimidate other countries, including long-time U.S. allies.

Still, the spat with Colombia is also a reminder of how Trump’s hard-line approach will cause massive global damage. The US president has groomed Canada and Mexico over border issues, tried to force Denmark to sell Greenland and threatened to seize back the Panama Canal.

Four years of this strategy could damage U.S. global relationships and harden attitudes toward Americans among foreign populations. The Colombian dispute has quickly drawn the attention of China, which is seeking to increase its influence in Washington’s backyard – underscoring the potential disadvantages for the United States should Trump choose to alienate key regional countries over ongoing confrontation.

Trump wields power on map

Trump’s victory over Colombia came in the first week of a presidency in which he has used intimidation as a force to stamp his mark on U.S. power at home and dramatically change the course abroad.

On Sunday, for example, Trump’s new administration launched a deportation blitz in Chicago that will spread across the country, in the latest highly visible sign that he’s eager for quick results.

White House Border Patrol agent Tom Homan told CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez on Sunday that the new multi-policy approach is a “game changer.”

“Today’s actions are all government. President Trump is putting all of government on this issue,” he said. Nearly 1,000 people were arrested in Sunday’s sweep, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It was another stunning example of the new president wielding an aggressive administration Friday night after firing more than a dozen watchdogs at key government agencies.

The purge is part of Trump’s attempt to follow the long-held conservative belief that the federal bureaucracy has always thwarted Republican presidents when trying to carry out election duties.

But Democrats criticized the move as an abuse of power and a sign of Trump’s concern about government ethics as agency inspectors report general waste, fraud and abuse to Congress. Even some senior Republicans complained that the president should have complied with the law by giving Congress a 30-day notice of termination.

“I think he should do it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on CNN’s “The Alliance.”

But the South Carolina Republican asked: “Does he think the people he thinks can carry out his agenda can? Yes. He won the election. What do you want him to do, just put everybody in Washington before he gets elected?” Graham added: “He felt the government was not working very well for the American people.”

Another intense week for Trump looms

Trump has suggested he could be a transformational leader, showing energy and focus and moving quickly to implement his campaign promises, especially on immigration. His Pentagon sabotage agent, Pete Hegseth, was sworn in as defense secretary on Saturday, following Vice President J.D. Vance’s decision on his controversial confirmation.

But Trump has also taken steps that could alienate many of the swing voters who brought him to power.

His blanket pardons on January 6, 2021, including for rioters convicted of violent crimes, shocked many Republicans. His decision to strip former aides critical of him, including several over Iran threats, of their security details revealed an obsession with past grievances that sometimes distracted from his political goals.

Trump said last week that voters were more concerned about immigration than high grocery prices. But Republicans hope to hold on to their narrow House majority in next year’s midterm elections, which may depend on him delivering tangible economic progress.

That makes the president’s meeting with Republican lawmakers at the Doral golf resort in South Florida on Monday particularly important, as the meeting will focus on how to move a massive deportation package through Congress, including tax cuts and funding.

Sudden showdown with Colombia highlights dangers of immigration purges

Colombia’s attempted resistance provided an immediate test for the new U.S. president, one that was sure to be watched across the region.

Trump’s initial reaction was disheartening. He ordered an immediate emergency tariff of 25% on Colombian goods, which he said would rise to 50% within a week. The United States has also implemented a “travel ban” for Colombian citizens and revoked visas for Colombian officials, among other measures.

Trump’s warning to the truth: “These measures are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations to accept and return criminals forced into the United States!”

But Petro had his own response on Colombians.”

Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Petro may have reasons for an early fight with Trump – especially if it is dissatisfied with its existing trade relationship with the United States Next, this is a long-term military ally. Berg added that Petro may have thought “he would be seen as fighting for dignity in Latin America from positioning himself in the United States.”

Still, long-term tariffs on Colombia by its largest trading partner could be disastrous. Hours before the White House announced that Colombia was coming, Berg predicted that Colombia would have to quietly make a deal with Trump. “If they think they can only survive 50 percent tariffs and everything else Trump says he’s going to do – sanctions on banks and investments and everything else, they’re going to wake up to rudeness,” he said.

Maria Claudia Lacouture, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Colombo, wrote on X that U.S. tariffs would be immediate and devastating. “We call for sanity, dialogue and common sense, prioritizing diplomatic channels to overcome this serious crisis in the shortest possible time. Calmness is important for all actors involved,” she wrote.

U.S. trade in goods and services with Colombia totaled $53.5 billion in 2022, according to the U.S. Trade Representative, a small subset of U.S. commercial relationships with senior partners such as Canada and China. Still, a protracted trade war with Colombia could have one tangible effect: If already soaring egg prices spike, it would make American breakfasts more expensive, and with them the price of a key Colombian export: coffee.

Trump’s shot at Petro is the most important drama of his administration in Latin America.

Later this week, new Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, where they demand an end to the flow of migrants and an increase in deportations on the U.S. agenda.

More broadly, the next four years are likely to intensify the geopolitical competition between the United States and China for influence in Latin America. Trump has already alienated Panama by falsely claiming that Beijing controls the Panama Canal, and he has threatened to regain sovereignty over the main waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

It was no coincidence, then, that China’s choice to be ambassador to Colombia on Sunday afternoon – as diplomatic insults exchanged between Trump and Petro – pointed to an interview in which he recalled Colombia’s foreign minister saying last year that Bogota had no business with Beijing. The relationship between them is their relationship. The “best moment” in 45 years.

And the reality that the rest of the world has a say, however actively exerting power, could also complicate his ambitious plans to reshape the Middle East, after he suggested over the weekend that he could “clean up” war-torn Gaza and sent refugees to Jordan and Egypt. Such an idea, while embraced by Israel’s far right, is a lackluster key US ally that could stuff his top regional goal – aligning Arab states with Israel on the anti-Iran front.

Trump team launches new immigration blitz

The new administration has told the rink’s office, where the administration’s new multi-policy immigration enforcement operation in Chicago begins, to meet a daily quota of 75 arrests, according to two sources.

The Trump team last week told federal prosecutors to investigate officials in Democratic-run cities and states like Chicago and Illinois if they resist new immigration enforcement efforts. That raises the possibility that mass deportations could spark the most serious conflict between federal and state and local powers in years.

Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said on “State of the Union” that he shares the administration’s goal of deporting violent criminals but cast doubt on the administration’s approach.

“If that’s who they take over, we’re all for it,” Pritzker said. But, he added, “They’re going after people who are following the law, who are keeping their jobs, who have family here, who may have been there Been here for decades or twenty years.”

Whether it will backfire politically remains to be seen.

After a meeting with House Republicans on Monday that saw his majority cast a huge influence on Trump’s agenda, the president returned to Washington, where his desire to quickly consolidate power means the second week of his second term is sure to look like the first The week has been busy and enjoyable.

For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at CNN.com