President Trump has shifted his foreign policy focus to Latin America with a decisive new move targeting one of the region’s most polarizing figures.
Declaring a full freeze on U.S. assistance to Colombia, Trump accused the country’s far-left president, Gustavo Petro, of turning the nation’s narcotics industry into its most profitable export.
In a Truth Social post, Trump charged that Petro had transformed coca cultivation into Colombia’s “biggest business” while collecting “large-scale payments and subsidies from the USA.”
“President Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia,” Trump wrote.
He added, “AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA.”
Trump described Petro as “a low-rated and very unpopular leader,” warning that if Colombia refused to destroy drug-producing fields, “the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”
His message signaled the toughest rebuke yet from Washington toward Bogotá’s leftist government, The Blaze notes.
The decision came amid a broader crackdown on transnational cartels.
Days earlier, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed that the U.S. military had carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel tied to the Ejército de Liberación Nacional, a Colombian guerrilla faction accused of smuggling narcotics.
Hegseth compared the cartels to “the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere,” underscoring the administration’s view of drug networks as direct national security threats.
Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president and a former guerrilla commander, has drawn scrutiny for aligning with socialist governments in Cuba and Venezuela.
Critics say he’s shown leniency toward coca growers while failing to dismantle cartel-linked networks.
Under his leadership, coca cultivation has surged to record highs despite years of U.S. aid meant to suppress drug production.
The aid freeze marks a sharp departure from previous administrations, which continued funding despite persistent corruption and cartel infiltration.
Trump’s move underscores a policy shift away from what his team calls “blank-check diplomacy” and toward demanding measurable results from foreign partners.
Florida lawmakers quickly rallied behind the decision.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), who represents the nation’s largest Colombian-American community, wrote, “We support the end of aid to the Gustavo Petro regime and will continue to work closely with all the opposition leaders who will soon rescue the country with A FIRM HAND AND A BIG HEART!”
Gimenez blasted Petro’s “pathetic pacts” with “narcoterrorists and the dictatorships” of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Florida Sen. Ashley Moody (R) praised Trump’s action, thanking him for “ending taxpayer support for corrupt regimes.” She added, “The USA cannot continue to be the lifeblood of these criminal cartels at the expense of the wellbeing of our people.”
By cutting aid and authorizing targeted military strikes, the Trump administration is signaling that foreign governments enabling narcotics trafficking will face swift consequences.
Officials say the new policy draws a hard line between nations that combat the drug trade and those that profit from it—a message that Latin American leaders can no longer ignore.
