The White House instigated tensions with Colombia, then Trump escalated the whole thing.

Perhaps you heard that, on Sunday, the U.S. almost entered a trade war with Colombia. Things have settled down now, but both right wing and major news media got the story wrong. For example, this is what we saw from the New York Times:

To correct the record, here's a timeline of how this whole mess unfolded.

Friday, January 24th

As I noted previously, the Trump administration hasn't ramped up their "mass deportation" plans...yet. But they're eager to look as threatening as possible. So on Friday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt went on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to announce that "Deportation flights have begun." Accompanying her tweet was a picture of shackled migrants boarding a military cargo plane. This is the image the White House wanted everyone to see:

Saturday, January 25th

The Brazilian government expressed outrage over the inhumane treatment of migrants who were deported to Manaus. For example:

Edgar Da Silva Moura, a 31-year-old computer technician, was on the flight, after seven months in detention in the United States.

"On the plane they didn't give us water, we were tied hands and feet, they wouldn't even let us go to the bathroom," he told AFP.

"It was very hot, some people fainted."

Sunday, January 26th 

After watching all of that unfold, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro refused to allow a military cargo plane with deportees to land in his country, saying that the U.S. cannot treat Columbian migrants as criminals. 

"A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves," Petro said. "That is why I returned the U.S. military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants... In civilian planes, without being treated like criminals, we will receive our fellow citizens."

It is important to note that, during the Biden administration, Columbia allowed 475 deportation flights from the U.S. - so none of this was about returning the migrants. It was all about how the Trump administration was treating them.

As we all know by now, with Donald Trump, cruelty is the point. So instead of working diplomatically with one of our allies, the president resorted to threats and punishment - imposing tariffs, travel bans, and sanctions. 

Petro responded with a screed of his own, promising retaliatory tariffs on anything imported from the U.S. 

In the end, however, an agreement was reached. Of course, the White House took a victory lap claiming that "The Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms." Columiba's foreign ministry released a statement suggesting that "the government would accept all deportation flights and 'guarantee dignified conditions' for those Colombians on board."

So what we got was bellicose threats on social media and a bit of diplomacy behind the scenes. But that's now how it's being reported. In the U.S. media, Petro bowed to Trump, while in Latin America, the opposite is true. The title of the linked article is: "Petro faces Trump and wins first arm wrestling match. American backed down," according to Google translates.  

Based on the timeline of how all of this played out, my take would be that Trump instigated the tension and then escalated the situation when Petro responded. The two then had a bit of a d*ck-swinging contest, but cooler heads warded off a crisis behind the scenes.