On his first Sunday, when a lot of his cabinet is taking a day off, Trump is raging on social media, giving us, perhaps, a glimpse of the week to come.
Although not large trade partners, Colombia is a nation with which the United States has a trade surplus—sending more products to them than the United States receives. Colombia receives a variety of items from the United States in small amounts. However, the United States receives two major public staples from Colombia: Around $6 billion in crude oil and $1.4 billion in coffee. The new tariffs will place further pressure on the price of gasoline in the United States.
Meanwhile, Marco Rubio's State Department issued "travel sanctions on individuals and their families, who were responsible for the interference of U.S. repatriation flight operations." The order states the sanctions will be lifted when Petro capitulates to the United States. Although President Trump announced on Truth social that Colombia was in compliance, the State Department has not issued a retraction of the travel restriction.
 |
| President Trump announced on Truth Social that he would be retaliating against Colombia. |
Between a few calls to heads of State, he took to Truth Social to announce he will be slapping Colombia with tariffs and other penalties for not accepting repatriated immigrants expelled from the United States. This was triggered when Colombia refused to accept the flight at its airport after the plane was in the air, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. Colombia had refused the flights in protest to the manner in which its citizens were treated, after seeing them shackled and handcuffed as they entered the military plane.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro responded on X, that he was issuing a retaliatory tariff of 25%. He also posted other sleights and insults toward Trump, and implied that Washington D.C. is a place of gang violence itself, in subsequent posts. He also declared "we are not a colony of the United States."
Petro said he will send Colombian planes to gather their expatriates from the U.S., which some news outlets are saying is a capitulation, but which President Petro said on X is an act of basic human decency.
Based on reports as of Sunday night, Trump saw Petro as capitulating to all his demands. It appears at this time that Trump is talking about Petro's offer to fly the immigrants home in Colombian planes, to help them avoid being shackled and handcuffed during the flight. Petro later stated that the two had come to an agreement.
 |
| Colombian President Gustavo Petro announces retaliatory tariffs of 25% on American products. |
Trump's goals are to "drill baby drill" domestically, but this cannot be set up in a day, or even several months. It takes time to find locations, time to hire, time to build infrastructure, time to drill, etc...Therefore, any pressure placed on petroleum imports can only raise gas prices in the short to medium term.
Several other countries in North, Central and South America acted in solidarity with Colombia, including Mexico and Brazil. The President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, announced that if the "felon" (meaning Trump), continues the deportations in this manner, she would order the U.S. military base in Honduras closed. Other national leaders have also chimed in with sentiments similar to Colombia's.
 |
| In a video posted to TikTok, President Castro of Honduras announces she will close the U.S. Military base . |
The president has started multiple slap fights with Latin American nations, and will likely follow through with tariffs and visa restrictions to get other nations to cooperate with the United States on immigration.*
Although the tariffs are not yet official, we can probably expect an official creation of tariffs for various nations on or before February 1.
*President Obama used visa restrictions during his presidency, but there were consequences. Trump's tariffs and restrictions will also have unintended consequences that, if I had to guess, have not been well vetted by intelligent and independent people in Trump's circles.
Comments
Post a Comment