Colombia yields to Trump’s tariff threats

President Donald Trump and Colombian president Gustavo Petro feuded yesterday over the return of immigrants living illegally in the US, but after Trump’s threats of tariffs, Petro agreed to send his own plane to pick up the criminals. 

Trump’s plans to return the immigrants back to their country of citizenship were temporarily thwarted by Petro, who denied the flights permission to land. He claimed he rejected the repatriation flights because of the lack of “dignity and respect” shown to these Colombians, as they would have arrived on military planes while handcuffed. Petro stated, “We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals.”

Following this, Trump released his own statement on Truth Social, writing, “Petro’s denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States.” Trump then released a list of measures that would be taken until Colombia accepted the return of its citizens. These included: an immediate 25 percent tariff on all Colombian goods with a rise to 50 percent by next week, a travel ban and visa revocations for Colombian government officials and enhanced inspections on Colombian nationals and cargo upon entrance into the country. 

By the end of the day, Petro agreed that he would use his own presidential plane to facilitate the return of these citizens back to his country. This response appears to be an attempt to walk the fine line between appeasing Trump and his threats while also still achieving his original goal of accepting the return of the Colombians with dignity. 

Trump supporters view this as an example of the usefulness of tariffs as a tool for foreign-policy negotiations. Critics, however, say that this may not be the best strategy in the long run as it appears to create animosity between the US and other countries. Indeed, Petro referred to the incident as a coup accomplished through economic strength and arrogance, before claiming that Trump’s greed is going to wipe out the human species.

Meanwhile, in an interview with NBC News last Sunday, White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration is going to “shut the Darién Gap down.” 

The Darién Gap is a sixty-mile section of thick and lawless jungle that connects North and South America. It is often used as a route for illegal immigration as well as for drug and sex trafficking.

Homan said closing the route would be done with the aid of local countries. Panama is a neighboring country to the Darién Gap that has been taking serious actions in the last few months to combat illegal migration, reports NBC News. Though, as Trump has vowed to take back the Panama Canal, it is unclear how willing the country will be to work with the US on other initiatives. 

-Derek VanBuskirk

On our radar

SELENA’S SOB STORY Actress/singer Selena Gomez has removed a video of herself sobbing over Trump’s deportation plans after social-media users said she should use her billions of dollars of wealth to do something about it.

HAMAS HOSTAGES Hamas promised to release thirty-three Israeli hostages, but has just revealed eight of them are dead.

TRANS BAN Trump is reportedly preparing to sign an executive order prohibiting transgender people from serving in the military.

Comer’s suspicious activity report

Congressman James Comer made a name for himself during his investigations into President Joe Biden’s family business dealings; he is now rumored to have an eye on the Kentucky’s governor’s mansion and recently scored a best-selling book chronicling his work.

One thing caught Cockburn’s eye, however, as he perused the New York Times’s Best Seller list: Comer’s book, All the President’s Money, which currently sits seventh on the hardcover nonfiction list, comes with an asterisk — or a dagger, to be more precise.

Alone among all books listed in the top fifteen is the dreaded dagger alongside Comer’s book; in the Times’s parlance, the dagger is an indication “that some retailers report receiving bulk orders.” Comer’s attempt to impeach Biden was panned by many of his colleagues, and the dagger suggests that the appeal his book has to the general public is artificial at best. After all, why publish this book when Biden was days away from leaving office? Why not do so before the election, when it could have mattered perhaps a bit more?

To put this in words that Comer is undoubtedly familiar with, this is a suspicious activity report of sorts — while not a crime against the law, it is viewed as a crime against publishing. One of Cockburn’s sources remarked that “having gone through the process of publishing a book from a sitting member of Congress, I can tell you that there is no possible way you could make an error like this unless you were not trying or not paying attention…it is literally impossible to accidentally execute a bulk purchase of your own books.”

Perhaps Comer internalized the shady behavior of the Biden family a bit too much.

–Cockburn

More of Trump’s nominees make the cut

President Donald Trump’s administration is starting to take form following the confirmation of a few of his nominees.

The first confirmed nominee was secretary of state Marco Rubio, who received unanimous support from his former colleagues at the Senate Foreign Relations Commitee. CIA director John Ratcliffe came in second, with twenty-four Democrats voting against his confirmation. Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, was also confirmed, with thirty-three Democrats opposing her confirmation.

The most contentious confirmation so far was that of defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who made it through because Vice-President J.D. Vance broke the tie Friday night, as Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined their Democrat colleagues in opposing Hegseth’s nomination. This marks the second time in history that a vice president broke a tie to confirm a cabinet official; the first time involved confirming Trump’s 2017 nominee to head the Department of Education, Betsy DeVos.

The first confirmation hearing of Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is scheduled for Wednesday, with a second one the next day. Small Business Administration head pick Kelly Loeffler’s hearing is also scheduled for Wednesday. As for Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of National Intelligence, and Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, their hearings are scheduled for Thursday.

With the confirmation process of Secretary Hegseth leading to an absolute nail-bitter, the fast-approaching hearings of Gabbard, Kennedy and Patel are expected to produce a spectacle. Republicans can only afford three no votes in each of these cases, and with the three musketeers who refused to back Hegseth likely opposing these nominees too, it all comes down to whether another Republican will reject Trump’s choice.

–Juan P. Villasmil