It should be clear by now that Donald Trump isn’t messing around.
He is not going to let anyone stand in the way of his agenda.
And he just threatened to send one powerful leader into bankruptcy.
When the news broke that the president of the nation of Colombia had refused to allow the planes with illegal migrants to land, everyone knew what was coming next.
Trump does not like being treated in that way and, in response, threatened unprecedented tariffs on Colombia, the level of which could have bankrupted the nation.
According to ABC News, “A looming trade war between the US and Colombia appears to have been averted after the Colombian government agreed to allow US military flights carrying deported migrants to land in the Andean country.”
“The spat erupted on Sunday when President Gustavo Petro barred two military planes carrying Colombians deported from the US from landing.”
“The Trump administration responded by threatening to slap punitive tariffs on Colombian exports to the US.”
It wouldn’t have been much of a trade war. Colombia is a much weaker nation than the U.S. and these tariffs would have been devastating for them.
The article goes on to say: “President Petro at first said Colombia would retaliate by imposing tariffs on US goods, but the White House later announced that Colombia had agreed to accept migrants – including those arriving on US military aircraft – ‘without limitation or delay.’”
“The White House hailed the agreement with Colombia as a victory for Trump’s hard-line approach, after the countries’ two leaders had exchanged threats on social media on Sunday.”
“A cornerstone of Trump’s immigration policy is removing unlawful migrants from the US, with the promise of ‘mass deportations.’”
If the people on this plane were violent criminals, then their deportation from the U.S. is justified.
While not everyone who comes into the country illegally is a violent criminal, anyone who is deserves immediate deportation.
The fact the Colombian president did not want these people back in his country indicates at least some of them might have been violent criminals.
But that’s a problem for him to deal with, not the United States.