Trump’s tariff tango will only reinforce his view that bullying works
Washington: Bullying works. That’s what Donald Trump will take away from his whirlwind tariff tit-for-tat with Colombia.
What initially looked like day one of a trade war ended with the South American nation agreeing to accept Colombian migrants back on US military deportation flights and even sending one of their own planes to help.
Donald Trump speaks at the 2025 House Republican members conference dinner in Florida.Credit: AP
After a few hours of posturing, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro – prone to a serve of braggadocio himself – dropped his objections in the face of Trump threatening immediate 25 per cent tariffs. The White House crowed that Colombia had “agreed to all of president Trump’s terms”.
In reality, there wasn’t much to crow about. Colombia routinely accepts migrant expatriation flights, though Petro fiercely objected to them arriving in shackles under military guard – that part was new.
It appears quite important to Trump, however, that migrants are deported – or at least seen to be deported – on military aircraft. The White House has been posting photographs of deportees being marched on to C17s, along with the mugshots of individuals convicted of crimes and deported.
Trump has ordered immigration raids in several known migrant-friendly cities.Credit: AP
At a Republican conference on Tuesday (AEDT), Trump boasted that “for the first time in history, we are locating and loading illegal aliens onto military aircraft and flying them back to the places from which they came”.
“We’re respected again,” he told lawmakers gathered at his Trump National Doral Golf Club in Florida. “After years of laughing at us like we’re stupid people.”
Trump went on to say the skirmish with Colombia – which started and ended within the confines of a Sunday in the US – was an example to every country that they must fall into line or pay a “very high economic price”.
With the world in nervous awe, Trump is keen to telegraph strength and prepared to spin anything into a major victory – even when little of substance has actually changed. Throwing your weight around with Colombia isn’t exactly taking on the big guns. But Trump – aided by his US media boosters lauding it as a masterstroke – will claim it as a win and use it to generate more leverage as he embarks on his America First odyssey.
Already emboldened by his remarkable political comeback, Republican majorities in Congress, a sympathetic Supreme Court and seemingly unstoppable momentum, Trump will be reassured that his hard-nosed, crash-through approach to foreign interactions is the way to get what he wants.
Former Australian ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos, now Australia chair of Washington-based strategy firm The Asia Group, says the incident shows the world should take Trump’s threats seriously, especially when he calls tariff “the most beautiful word in the English language”.
“The president, in his own mind, would see himself as having unfettered power ... to the extent that you can have unfettered power in a democracy,” Sinodinos says. “He will act accordingly. He will push issues to the nth degree. He will push the limits of the law, test the law and dare courts and others to pull him back.”
Tariffs are a key tool in the kit. Kevin Hassett, the Trump-appointed director of the National Economic Council, told Fox News: “I think that you saw from the Colombia negotiation that the president is going to use tariffs if he needs to get people to make policy concessions that are good for America.”
Vermont senator and former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders accused Trump of “trying to bully our allies Canada, Colombia, Denmark and Panama” by threatening tariffs if they don’t bow to his wishes.
Trump, one might assume, would not see that as a criticism.
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