Donald Trump and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro have engaged in a new round of verbal sparring, with the United States president calling his South American counterpart a “thug” who is “making a lot of drugs”, and the Colombian leader threatening legal action against Trump in US courts.

Weeks of escalating tension between Washington and Bogota hit a new level on Wednesday when Trump told reporters at the White House he was suspending all military aid to Colombia due to its alleged role in the international narcotics trade and warned Petro to “watch it”.

“He’s a thug and he’s a bad guy, and he’s hurt his country very badly,” Trump said.

“They’re doing very poorly, Colombia. They make cocaine. They have cocaine factories … and he better watch it or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country,” the US president said.

“What he has led his country into is a death trap,” Trump added.

Responding to the US president’s threat, Petro took to social media to announce he would take legal action against Trump’s slanderous remarks.

“From the slanders that have been cast against me in the territory of the United States by high-ranking officials, I will defend myself judicially with American lawyers in the American justice system,” Petro wrote on X.

“I will always stand against genocides and murders by those in power in the Caribbean,” he said, adding that when Colombian “help is required to fight against drug trafficking, American society will have it”.

“We will fight against the drug traffickers with the states that want our help,” Petro added.

Last weekend, Trump labelled Petro a “drug trafficking leader” and threatened to increase tariffs on Colombian exports.

Petro responded by accusing the US president of violating international trade agreements and acting like a “king” in Latin America. He also recalled Colombia’s ambassador to Washington and said Colombian troops would not support a potential US military intervention in neighbouring Venezuela, where Trump has also labelled the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, a drug trafficker.

“What Colombian would help invade where their own family lives, only to see them killed like in Gaza?” Petro said.

Colombia and US alliance at risk

Colombia’s ambassador to the US, Daniel Garcia Pena, speaking to the AFP news agency in Bogota where he has been recalled, said Trump’s latest remarks were “unacceptable”.

“Under no circumstances can one justify that kind of threats and accusations that have no basis whatsoever,” Pena said, warning that the 200-year alliance between Colombia and the US was being put at risk.

The growing war of words between Trump and Petro follows the US administration’s announcement in September that it would decertify Colombia’s counter-narcotics efforts, claiming the country failed to meet its obligations to fight drug trafficking.

It also comes amid increasing threats by Trump against Venezuela’s President Maduro and a US military build-up in the Caribbean, including attacks on vessels which the US claims are involved in drug smuggling, without providing any evidence.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed earlier on Wednesday that US forces had, for the first time in the regional build-up, conducted a strike on a vessel travelling in international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people.

Hegseth alleged the victims were “narco-terrorists”, without providing any evidence.

The attack is the eighth by the US military in recent weeks against alleged drug traffickers on the high seas – involving seven boats and one semi-submersible – with 34 people killed so far, according to US figures.

The origin of the vessels attacked by the US has not been disclosed, though some were destroyed off Venezuela’s coast, while at least one came from Trinidad and Tobago, and another from Colombia, families of the deceased told AFP.

International law experts say the Trump administration’s summary killings of people in international waters are illegal. Even if those killed are confirmed to be drug traffickers, they still have the right to due legal process.

While Colombia is the world’s top cocaine producer, successive governments in Bogota have long worked alongside the US to curb production, which is controlled by a range of well-funded cartels and armed paramilitary groups and rebels.

In a later post on social media on Wednesday, Petro said 17,000 cocaine factories in Colombia had been destroyed during his time in government.

Le informó al mundo que llevo 17.000 fábricas de cocaína destruidas en mi gobierno https://t.co/0KQclu7mC6

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 23, 2025

Translation: I informed the world that I have destroyed 17,000 cocaine factories during my government.