Less than a day. That’s all it took. Within hours of being told the nation would face a 25 percent tariff on all goods exported to the United States, Colombia changed its tune on its initial refusal to accept home repatriated criminal illegal immigrants that President Donald Trump had ordered returned on military flights.
“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 US military aircraft, without limitation or delay.”
Trump announced the tariff on Truth Social and also said his administration would be closing its visa department in the American embassy in Colombia should the refusal perist. The Trump administration said in a statement, “The fully drafted IEEPA tariffs and sanctions will be held on reserve, and not signed unless Colombia fails to honor this agreement.”
What this means is that America is back as the leader of the Free World. Donald Trump gets problems solved very quickly. America is no longer a do-nothing nation that was almost begging to be the dumping ground of the world’s criminals and terrorists under former President Joe Biden and people had better just get used to that fact.
Trump has been talking extensively of late about President Theodore Roosevelt. The reference is usually in the context of how Trump is anxious to see the Panama Canal returned to the ownership of the United States because it is no longer a secure passageway. It was built, Trump says, through the vision, insistence and persistence of Roosevelt, a president who exercised a profoundly successful foreign policy that was guided by the axiom, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
Trump is not one to ever speak softly but he does carry a big stick, with tariffs that immediately attract the attention and quick compliance of nations around the world. The fear of tariffs is intensified because foreign heads-of-state know that Trump is serious about following through on his threat. He is not just playing diplomatic games. After four years of the pusillanimous Biden administration, which spoke very loudly about applying its woke politics to foreign policy but could not even defend the southern border from a global invasion of illegal immigrants, Trump has reversed American helplessness in just one week. America is back. America is leading.
Carrying the big stick does not mean starting foreign forever-wars. It means convincing foreign powers that the US means business right now, today, so just comply with the directions, please.
Colombia complied very quickly. And of course, why shouldn’t it? The illegal immigrants were Colombian citizens and it was that nation's responsibility to take them back and, conceivably, assess whether they belong in jail or on the streets through their own judicial process.
Trump warned Canada in November that he would impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods. He noted that Canada could avoid the tariff if it seriously addressed its border security deficit. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew down to Mar-a-Lago like an unwelcome uncle at a family reunion and crashed Trump’s Thanksgiving dinner. Trudeau and his retinue were not even asked to spend the night. It wasn’t until Dec. 17 that the Liberal government actually addressed the border concerns with its absurdly named Fall Economic Statement which was released literally days before autumn turned to winter. In that document, Trudeau inserted a pledge to spend $1.3 billion under a line item titled “Securing Our Borders” under the “Safety, Security, And Fair Governance” section that includes a line item about “investing” in “black justice,” whatever that might mean for Canada.
Yes, there’s a little over a billion for the border—except the money will be dispensed over SIX YEARS. And most of the funding will not unfold until years five, six and seven. In the next fiscal year, the Liberal government will spend more on confiscating firearms from law-abiding citizens than it will on border security. None of this fooled Trump, who immediately began talking about Canada as the "51st state" being led by "Gov. Justin Trudeau." Obviously, the tariff threat has not gotten the attention of Trudeau or his government.
So Trump made it clearer. During his virtual speech to the World Economic Forum enclave in Devos, Trump spoke about just how much Trudeau wasn’t getting it. He even increased the pressure by noting how the US might not need to buy anything from Canada.
“One thing we're going to be demanding is we're going to be demanding respect from other nations. Canada, we have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We're not going to have that anymore … You can always become a state, and if you're a state, we won't have a deficit. We won't have to tariff you,” he said.
“But Canada has been very tough to deal with over the years, and it's not fair that we should have a 200 billion or $250 billion deficit. We don't need them to make our cars, and they make a lot of them. We don't need their lumber because we have our own forests. We don't need their oil and gas. We have more than anybody … You know, we just want to be treated fairly with other nations,” he continued.
What was Trudeau’s response to this? Instead of showing some degree of respect or perhaps even apologizing for suggesting it was unfortunate that former Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t win the 2024 presidential race because it was a blow to women’s rights for Trump to win, Trudeau intensified his arrogance and stupidity and mocked the US president for wanting “a golden age for the American economy.”
“The federal government has continued to say, clearly, as I will, that everything is on the table if he does move forward on tariffs on Canada … two things will happen. One, Canada will have a strong, robust response, because we don't want this, but we will respond if necessary. And two, prices for American consumers on just about everything will go up, and we don't think he wants that,” Trudeau said.
Then he really indicated how little he understands the issue. "[President Trump] has talked about the border as being a great preoccupation for him. We have highlighted that less than 1% of illegal drugs coming into the United States, less than 1 percent of migrants going into the United States come from Canada,” Trudeau said, then having the gall to suggest “we're still investing over a billion dollars in strengthening our borders.”
As noted, the Liberals are doing nothing of the kind today, this week or this year. And Trump knows the majority of illegals are getting through the southern border. He also knows a lot of terrorists are getting in through Canada.
But Colombia decided to be reasonable with Trump and Trump has promised to be reasonable with them—so long as they honor their promise to accept repatriated illegals.
Trudeau could learn a lesson here: apologize to Trump for his constant verbal assaults and get on with securing the border. The president of Colombia got the message loud and clear. Trudeau is not even listening—but then again, he wants a trade war with the US because the only hope in hell that his government has of reelection is to frame the next election as not one between it and the Conservative Party opposition but of Canada led by the Liberals and a US headed by Trump. Maybe that’s why Trudeau is acting even more moronic than usual.
