Alina Habba, counselor to President Donald Trump, told Newsmax on Monday that Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro learned a tough lesson when he turned away two U.S. military aircraft carrying criminal illegal immigrants from his country: “You mess with the bull, you get the horns.”
It only took minutes after Petro on Sunday blocked the planes from entering his country for Trump to threaten to impose sweeping retaliatory measures such as tariffs and sanctions. Petro just as quickly backed down, and the nations that night came to an agreement that, among other things, allowed the repatriation flights to continue.
“He was trying to flex, it sounds like, this Colombian president and he flexed with the wrong president,” Habba told “Rob Schmitt Tonight.” “And that’s President Trump. It was very clear what happened. Frankly, it was on social media so we could all see it. [Trump] very quickly said: You’re going to mess with us? You’re not going to take your criminals back because you don’t like how they’re shackled? Well, then take them. Treat them like princes for all we care. But you’re going to take them back because they had no business being in our country.
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