President Donald Trump put Colombian President Gustavo Petro on notice during a Saturday press conference, where he also addressed the fallout from the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Asked about Petro’s comment that he was “not concerned about anything happening to him in the aftermath of this operation,” Trump responded: “He has cocaine mills. He has factories where he makes cocaine. And yeah, I think I stick by my first statement. He’s making cocaine and they’re sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his ass.”
The comments follow an earlier incident in December in which Trump warned that Petro “better close up those cocaine factories,” citing at least three major cocaine production facilities in Colombia. At the time, Trump said the U.S. government had direct knowledge of their locations and called Petro “a troublemaker,” adding, “he better watch it.”
Petro, a self-described Marxist and former guerrilla, has clashed repeatedly with U.S. authorities since Trump returned to office. The Colombian leader was previously sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury and had his visa revoked after publicly urging the U.S. military to disobey Trump’s orders and join a “multi-national” force to “free Palestine.” He has also sparked diplomatic rows with the United States over deportation flights, referred to Trump as an “obstacle to democracy,” and even suggested that “humanity” should “get rid of Trump,” snapping his fingers in a widely condemned interview that aired in October.
The escalating tensions between Trump and Petro come in the wake of a historic U.S. military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
The socialist dictator, indicted in 2020 and long accused of leading the Cartel de los Soles—a major international cocaine trafficking syndicate—was apprehended and flown to the United States along with his wife, Cilia Flores. Both now face multiple charges in U.S. federal court, including narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses.
According to the indictment unsealed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Maduro and his regime collaborated with Colombian insurgent groups such as the FARC and ELN, as well as Mexican cartels like Sinaloa and Los Zetas, to traffic massive quantities of cocaine into the United States.
The Maduro takedown, praised by Trump as a “brilliant operation,” was part of “Operation Absolute Resolve,” a joint military and law enforcement mission carried out without the loss of U.S. personnel or equipment. It marked a dramatic escalation in Trump’s hemispheric security strategy, with administration officials openly describing the operation as a modern application of the Monroe Doctrine—rebranded by Trump as the “Donroe Doctrine.”
Petro has attempted to distance himself from Maduro, calling him a dictator for the first time in late 2025, but stopping short of acknowledging his narco-trafficking ties. In interviews and public remarks, Petro has repeatedly rejected U.S. claims against Maduro as a “narrative,” despite overwhelming evidence and years of indictments from U.S. courts.
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