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‘We Are the Opposite of Nazis’: Colombia’s President Slams Trump Deportation Policies

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American consumers narrowly escaped dramatic increases in the cost of their morning coffee and Valentine’s Day flowers after President Donald Trump on Sunday announced, then quickly rescinded, a 25% tariff on all imports from Colombia — with plans for a whopping 50% tariff to be imposed one week later. Trump’s tariffs were in retaliation for President Gustavo Petro refusing two U.S. military planes carrying deportees from the United States, and for denouncing the U.S. for transporting them in handcuffs.

“The US began using military aircraft to return recent border crossers back to their countries of origin last week, with flights expected to continue daily – partly as a message to other nations, White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday,” CNN reported.

Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil have all objected to Trump’s decision to fly deportees on U.S. military planes, a change from the Biden administration’s use of charter flights, which are far less expensive.

Earlier this month the Council on Foreign Relations warned of China’s “growing influence” in Latin America. Trump’s and Petro’s short-lived trade war, experts warn, could push Colombia closer to China and Russia.

READ MORE: Trump Team Pushing ‘Utter Propaganda’ on Deportations to Create ‘Climate of Fear’: Experts

Under the Biden administration, Colombia accepted hundreds of flights returning its deportees each year, but President Petro expressed outrage Sunday over the military planes and the treatment of the deportees.

“President Petro appeared to object to the return of deportees on military rather than civilian flights – and to the way the migrants may be treated on those military flights,” the BBC reported. “In his posts on X, Petro referenced a news video showing migrants deported from the US to Brazil, who had been handcuffed and had their feet restrained during the deportation flight.”

Petro “said that he would ‘never allow Colombians to be returned handcuffed on flights.'”

Trump’s trade war, which was quickly matched by President Petro, fizzled before it was put into action after Colombia, according to the White House, agreed to all of Trump’s demands, including the use of military planes.

“The Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay,” the White House’s statement read. “Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again. President Trump … expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States.”

President Petro took the opportunity to denounce President Trump’s immigration policies.

RELATED: ‘Hunting Grounds’: Trump Cancels Biden Ban on ICE Arrests at Schools, Churches, Hospitals

“Petro — Colombia’s first leftist president, who is closely allied with the presidents of Brazil and Mexico — said that over 15,600 U.S. citizens are living in Colombia without the proper documents. Petro added that while he is aware some Americans are living in Colombia illegally, he’s not going return them to the United States in chains,” according to The Washington Post.

“We are the opposite of the Nazis,” Petro wrote, according to Reuters.

“You will never see me burning a U.S. flag or carrying out a raid to return handcuffed illegal immigrants to the US. True libertarians will never attack human freedom,” Petro also wrote, according to Newsweek.

“Sergio Guzmán, director of the political consultancy Colombia Risk Analysis, said that the standoff could push Colombia closer to China,” The Washington Post also reported. “He noted that Colombia has expressed interest in joining BRICS — the economic partnership of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Amid the diplomatic crisis between Petro and Trump on Sunday, China’s ambassador to Colombia posted on X saying Colombia and China are in the ‘best moment of our diplomatic relations.’”

AFP and Australia’s news.com.au reported, “New US trade war with Colombia could open door for China.”

Professor Markus Wagner, an expert in international economic law, “said Mr Trump’s ‘weaponisation of trade relations’ through tariffs could push countries like Colombia away from America and closer to China.”

China “is already South America’s top trading partner and a major source of foreign investment, while also strengthening military ties with nations like Venezuela,” the report added.

READ MORE: ‘Not Good’: Trump Proposes ‘Getting Rid of’ FEMA, Conditioning California Aid on Voter ID

 

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‘Can Barely Keep His Eyes Open’: Trump Mocked Over ‘Ramblefest’ Davos Speech

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President Donald Trump drew sharp criticism at home as he delivered a widely panned speech to world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Perhaps never before has Trump given a major speech with so many immediate national and international crises at stake, including the future of Greenland, the future of NATO and Western alliances, global trade, inflation and the cost of living, Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, and the rise of China and authoritarianism.

Much of the reaction to Trump’s remarks focused on his delivery and the audience’s response.

“Trump can barely keep his eyes open during this speech,” mocked The Bulwark’s publisher Sarah Longwell.

“Trump’s on the Davos stage right now and the room feels like a waiting room. Low energy delivery. Zero reaction,” observed political commentator Brian Allen. “The room is so silent for Trump’s lie-fest at Davos you could hear a pin drop,” he added.

READ MORE: Canadian Prime Minister Warns World Order Has Ruptured

“Incredibly low energy performance today by Donald,” remarked The Lincoln Project.

Several commenters used strong language to express their criticism.

“‘Oh, no, this is going great,’ said no one watching Trump at Davos. Senile, mentally ill, reckless, and practically drooling on his speech, this is a ramblefest of grievance and revisionism,” commented The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson.

Others observed how his speech was being received.

“The throngs for Trump at Davos were nothing like I’ve seen before. I’m watching his speech in a packed overflow room. His rhetoric draws periodic chortles from the crowd,” commented Washington Post global affairs columnist Ishaan Tharoor.

And still others remarked on the validity of his remarks.

“Trump’s delusion is eclipsed only by the disrespect and insults and lies he is telling in Davos right now,” remarked Democratic strategist and CNN commentator Maria Cardona.

Journalist Ahmed Baba commented on the “contrast between Trump’s delusional Davos speech lying about his accomplishments,” and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “grounded Davos speech eloquently depicting the world as it is as a result of Trump’s unhinged foreign policy could not be starker.”

READ MORE: ‘Enemy Is Within’: Trump Boosts Post Casting NATO as a ‘Threat’ in Social Media Spree

 

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Canadian Prime Minister Warns World Order Has Ruptured

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Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney drew a standing ovation at the World Economic Forum in Davos after warning that the global order has ruptured.

“Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said, as The New York Times reported.

“I will talk today about the breaking of the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a brutal reality where the geopolitics of the great powers is not subject to any constraint,” he explained.

“Every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry,” he said. “That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”

Carney did not say President Donald Trump’s name, but he did tell his audience, “recently, great powers began using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.”

READ MORE: ‘Enemy Is Within’: Trump Boosts Post Casting NATO as a ‘Threat’ in Social Media Spree

“You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”

He also said that “there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along. To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety.”

“It won’t,” he warned.

Carney said that “intermediate powers like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the various states.”

And he warned that those powers “must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

The Times noted that Carney’s speech came “not long after” President Donald Trump “posted an A.I. image on social media that included a map of American flags superimposed over both Canada and the United States,” along with the U.S. flag on Greenland, Venezuela, and Cuba.

READ MORE: ‘Code Red’: Newsom Tells Europe They’ve Been Played by ‘T-Rex’ Trump

 

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US Could Slide Into Putin-Style Rule After Trump Foreign Policy Shift: Journalist

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In a stark warning on the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, The Bulwark’s editor, Jonathan V. Last, suggests that under Trump, America may adopt Putinism as its domestic policy, having already adopted it for its foreign policy.

“Will Putinism take over American domestic politics, too?” Last asks, in an opinion piece titled, “This Is the End.”

“America has adopted Putinism as its modus operandi for foreign affairs,” he says. “Why would America not also adopt Putinism in its domestic affairs? Why would the American regime tolerate free and fair elections or the transfer of power to an opposition party?”

Pursuing the question, Last continued: “Are there examples of expansionist, rogue regimes which ignored international law and attempted to subjugate free people abroad, but respected liberal democratic outcomes that terminated their possession of power at home?”

READ MORE: ‘Dictators’ Tea Party’: Trump’s Board of Peace Ridiculed as New Details Revealed

To those who suggest Trumpism is temporary, Last suggests he disagrees.

“Many people comfort themselves by saying some version of ‘Donald Trump is an aberration’ or ‘This isn’t who we are,'” he writes.

But, he continues, “If Trump was an aberration and his actions did not have sufficient public support, then he would be removed from office. There are two mechanisms for doing so—impeachment and the 25th Amendment.”

“Trump will not be removed from office; which allows one of two conclusions. Either: Trump’s policies are supported by a sufficient percentage of Americans to be viable; or America’s constitutional order is so ossified that it no longer functions to safeguard the will of the people.”

“Neither of these is an alibi,” Last warns, noting that, “either one supports the conclusion that the problem is not Trump. It is America and Americans. This is who we are. Like it or not.”

Last also makes several other predictions:

“The days of intelligence sharing between America and our former allies are drawing to a close.”

“The death of NATO.”

“Germany, Poland, and Canada will acquire nuclear weapons. So will Japan. Sweden, Australia, and South Korea may develop nuclear capabilities as well.”

“Europe will draw closer to China.”

“Greenland will become disputed territory.”

READ MORE: ‘Enemy Is Within’: Trump Boosts Post Casting NATO as a ‘Threat’ in Social Media Spree

 

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