Trump imposes tariffs, sanctions on Colombia after it refuses deportation flights

Nobody's ever gonna trust the US ever again after Trump. Guy just thinks he can bully entire countries to his will.

It's a showing of everything that's wrong with american exceptionalism...

That we elected him twice, not even consecutively, means that we can effectively never be trusted in our current state. Even if a psychopath leader is voted out, the American people are stupid enough to vote him back in once our goldfish memories fade.
May Europe and Latin America find their strength to be the democracies the world needs. The US, always a flawed example, can no longer be relied on even in matters of self-interest.
- Even if a psychopath leader is voted out, the American people are stupid enough to vote him back in once our goldfish memories fade.
  Or a different psychopath leader doing and saying the exact same things, but: "The Republican party have learned their lesson, they've changed!"
He forgot the tagline to actually affecting American exceptionalism as a goal:
"Speak softly and carry a big stick"
Doing this bombastic stuff just makes him / the government look weak.
Note that I'm not subscribing to American exceptionalism, but describing past efforts to achieve / demonstrate it.
- Trump speaks biggly and carries a soft stick.
  Trump thinks tariffs are some great threat and yeah they cut into US imports but countries will just export to other countries instead. Meanwhile the US implodes from lack of goods since nobody can afford to pay the tariffs. The only thing Trump is going to achieve is accelerating this coming recession into a full blown depression.
Yup. Biden had just started to return stability and reassure allies, even with one arm tied behind his back for his entire term, just so that Trump can fuck everything up again. I hope a true American ally sees him for the threat he is and we have an Ebrahim Reisi situation
Guy just thinks he can bully entire countries to his will.
He leads the US. He was handed the most powerful military in the world and one of the most influencial economies.
He absolutely can bully whomever he wants.
- Apparently Colombia and Mexico disagree, and they're not even particularly powerful. Sounds more like the US is all bark, at the moment.
- For a while. Until the rest of the world decides to not subsidize US deficits any more by using the dollar as the reserve currency.
- It is a lot harder to use that military than people think though. And purging the officers only makes it harder. The best trained infantryman in the world can't fight without bullets.
- Plumbum has entered the chat!
- With great power comes great responsibility.

Everyone needs to remember this is how the “Final Solution” started. They originally just wanted to deport everyone they didn’t like. Then other countries started saying No. so they came up with other ideas.

- Wow, you didn't live up to you username.
Who were.... Legal citizens, yes? Deporting illegal migrants is not the same.
- You realize you just defended death camps for non-citizens?
- No. Not after all their rights and their citizenship were taken away.
  See that's the thing a lot of people don't understand. Fascists often use the law and the system to LEGALLY implement all their horrific shit. Just because something is the law does not make it right. Laws can be changed, thus we shouldn't use them as an argument for what is and isn't right.
  Let's just imagine for a moment that tomorrow Trump and his little friends push through some law that allows them to strip every person with Swedish ancestry (for example) of their citizenship. Suddenly they could be deported, sure. And it would all be legal. Would you think it was right?
  Your government is already talking about taking away birthright citizenship. And the GOP has shown us they are perfectly happy stripping at the very least some people of some of their rights already. Are you telling me you don't think it could get any worse? Are you telling me that as long as it's legal, it's okay?
- 'cept that whole bit when he rips up asylum law and tries to EO away birthright citizenship?
- Again, this is how it starts...
  Good reading here:
  https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/genocide-roma
  "Prior to the Nazi regime taking power, Roma had been a subject of fascination and hatred in Europe. Though many viewed Roma as outsiders—and they were closely monitored by the authorities in Germany—the roughly one million Roma people in Europe lived diverse lives across the continent. Some Roma lived in caravans and traveled from town to town, selling horses and handcrafted products. Others lived in cities, towns, or villages doing a variety of jobs, from farming to fortune-telling to medicine.[3]
  When the Nazi regime took over in 1933, little changed right away for the Roma. They were already subject to travel restrictions and investigations by the police. But in early 1934, a number of Roma came under threat from the “Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases.” This law legalized and encouraged forced sterilization for people who were considered medically likely to have children with a “defect” of some sort—disabilities, mental or physical, that the Nazi regime considered damaging to the “German race” and workforce. Between 1934 and 1945, over 300,000 people were forcibly sterilized, most of them women. Many of these women did not survive the procedure, which often had to be repeated, was extremely painful, and was often done without any anesthetic. In the 1930s, 500 German and Austrian Roma were sterilized.[4]
  In 1935, there was another harsh blow to German Roma when the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor” was enacted. The first of the Nuremberg Laws, this law denied Jews their citizenship, banned marriages between members of “foreign races” and Germans, and took away political rights of so-called non-Germans.[5] Passed in September, the laws were expanded in November 1935 to include Roma. As a result, marriages were broken up, many Roma lost their jobs, and families faced destitution.
  During this time, Roma began to face further restrictions on their lives. High rental prices, foreclosures, destruction of caravan sites, and harassment by the police were some of the ways the government controlled “Gypsy” populations. As part of a policy designed to “prevent” crime, Roma men capable of work were frequently rounded up and sent to concentration camps as “vagrants,” “work-shy,” or “asocial” prisoners. Families of traveling Roma were confined to small geographic areas, enabling the police to monitor them closely."
- I think you might have misunderstood the lesson that we're taught about the Holocaust. It wasn't important who Nazi Germany gurt, it's what the Nazi's did. Regardless of who they did it to. The Nazis threw away their own humanity to achieve their goals, that is always wrong. Everything else after that is just details. That's what people are afraid of with Trump's deportation mandate, that to actually achieve it migrants will need to be treated subhuman. To deport them as quickly as Trump wants America and American's will have to throw away some more of their humanity. It's not the same as Nazi Germany in that there aren't death camps, but Trump and his allies want America to walk down that path a bit. It's wrong.

I hope the rest of the world keeps standing up.

Colombia has nothing to lose. The country is already in the black list for narco traffic. They suffered political meddling from the US in the 70s/80s. What next? Invasion? The cartels would be the first to pick up arms to fight back.
- I'm not looking for perfect. I'm looking for people saying fuck you to our newly installed dictator.
- I would beg to differ. We have a lot to lose. We get millions of dollars for our armed forces and anti drug forces to fight the guerrillas (narco terrorists). If Petro keeps pushing, Trump could take that away. We are going through an increase of violence in the Catacumbo region. That means investors are already nervous. This issue with the US government could affect our economy even more. As always innocent folks will get caught in the middle of the armed conflict and any terrorist acts. We also have a ton of export trade with the US obviously starting with coffee, but lots of other industries (flowers, cacao, fruits, etc.)
  Anyway, we could get fucked if Petro and Trump can't work things out. I don't expect they will, since they both behave like children.
If every country could come up with a way to personally annoy him (refuse to give away their largest territory, build taller buildings all around his hotels, call him a silly name, etc.) all the tariffs would essentially cancel each other out. If everything's tariffed, nothing's tariffed.
Unfortunately they've backed down already: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/world/americas/colombia-us-deportation-flights.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU4.SJeu.KLeSKsinK61Z

Mass deportations are the prelude to death camps.

Mass deportations of legal citizens, sure. Nothing wrong with deporting illegal migrants.
If it was Americans illegally living in ,Colombia you'd be cheering for them to send the American back to the US.
Also, the actual prelude to death camps is banning and removing guns from the population.
- Mass deportations of legal citizens, sure
  you realize that's what he's already trying to do right?
  That's what ending birthright citizenship is all about. Millions of people who are currently considered to be American citizens will have that stripped from them and then they are free to be deported
- Do you know that the Jewish population in Germany were citizens? And then Hitler took their citizenship away. Just like they used to have rights, until they didn't. Besides, just because something's legal, doesn't make it right. What's legal and what's not can change in the blink of an eye.
- Jews weren't "legal citizens" in Nazi Germany. What is and isn't "legal" is entirely made up.
- Fucking lol

Tariffs hurt America. The messaging is that simple.

Watch as we fuck up the messaging.

Coffee prices already suck, now they're gonna suck even more.

Lol, no they're not. Colombia caved within minutes
- Uhhhh no they didn't. Colombia got evening they wanted in return for accepting the flights.

Oh no! Don Jr. will pay his snow 25% more!

It seems the specific problem was that military planes were being used instead of civilian planes:

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.

That does make sense to me, since I'd feel less comfortable if a military plane was flying into my country, whereas I'd be more comfortable if a regular civilian flight was used instead. From the perspective of a Colombian, I would be concerned about how national security would be affected by giving permission for military planes to operate when they wouldn't otherwise have permission.

This is the main cause for every country that refuses the migrants, who the heck would want militaty planes to enter their air space?
If he really wants to do this he'll send them over in civilian planes not military ones...
I wish somebody in the military had the spine needed to arrest this particular threat to our nation.
- A military coup d'etat?

I wish the lunatics voters that support this would realize how expensive each of these flights are, at tax payers expense! Easily $30k per flight and Trump is aiming for thousands of these flights!

I heard $800,000 with about 80 people per flight. Good and cheap!
I wish the lunatics voters that support this would realize how expensive each of these flights are, at tax payers expense!
I see that the US finally got a taste of the Rwanda plan.
If you're into blaming your troubles on poor people and punishing them for it then it's a good deal I guess.
- Yeah, I believe this is what goes on in the minds of many people. They are single issue voters.

Columbia imposed 50% tarrifs on all US goods.

What goods do we export to Columbia?
- A lot of technology goods. Which basically means China, which was already doing a lot of their manufacture, wins out. China is going to be moving all in on the US international market as it continues to ramp up this way, and the US will be left increasingly alone when it is eventually forced to aid Taiwan in its defense.
- U.S. goods exports to Colombia in 2022 were $20.8 billion, up 24.2 percent ($4.1 billion) from 2021 and up 27 percent from 2012. U.S. goods imports from Colombia totaled $18.5 billion in 2022, up 40.3 percent ($5.3 billion) from 2021, but down 25 percent from 2012.
  https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/colombia#%3A%7E%3Atext=U.S.+goods+exports+to+Colombia%2Cdown+25+percent+from+2012.

Colombia's president already agreed to take all deportation flights, so tariffs are canceled.

Important to note that the agreement came after the deportees would be transported humanely on commercial flights as I understand it.
Can’t let the MAGA morons claim victory as though Colombia just caved in fear
- That doesn't seem to be true: https://www.elespectador.com/politica/petro-y-trump-llegan-a-acuerdos-gobierno-de-colombia-recibira-a-connacionales-deportados-por-estados-unidos/. Translating, it means that the Colombian government agreed to all of Trump's terms for the deportation of immigrants. Additionally, militar planes have been used for deportations for some years now, it's not a Trump-only thing.
  Colombian government did just caved out in fear, no VISA for anyone and 50% tariffs is a way too big thing for Colombian people to just let Petro (our already impopular president) do it, specially right now when there's a internal commotion status due to the rise of violence in Catatumbo, something that is mainly already his fault.
Source?
- https://ground.news/article/white-house-backs-off-on-tariffs-on-colombia-after-agreement-on-unrestricted-acceptance-of-migrants
  Edit: Also OP article updated to reflect that

Is China going to step in and start trading with Latin America?

Source?
I'm sorry; whatever search engines I've tried are f*cked and only give me articles about US tarrifs on other countries' exports. It's been ridiculous trying to find what I'm looking for.
- I think Lapar made a mistake. With a brief search, I found an article from 2019.
  [https://www.reuters.com/article/world/china-strikes-back-at-us-with-new-tariffs-on-75-billion-in-goods-idUSKCN1VD1BG/](China strikes back with tariffs on 75 billion in goods.)

FUCK now cocaine is going to be more expensive!

Since WW2, when has the US ever fought anyone for Europe?
Korea, Vietnam, Libya, Iraq 1 and 2, Afghanistan, Syria. All US incursions. A number of them had European countries backing up the US. Even today it's the US giving Israel unwaivering support (when it really should be waivering) that's dragging NATO countries into a conflict it really doesn't want to be a part of.
Europe has backed the US again and again so that it wasn't seen as acting as unilaterally (even if it was).
The only European operations I can think of Bosnia and Serbia, both of which were NATO operations with multinational forces.
- Korea, Libya, Iraq and Syria I will concede. However:
  Are you not aware that the Vietnam War was directly precipitated by the First Indochina War, in which the French failed to maintain control of their colony and the US stepped in when they pulled out?
  Are you not aware that the US initially got roped into intervening in Afghanistan by the British in the 1970s, continuing a British-Russian rivalry/series of proxy wars going all the way back to the "Great Game" in the 19th Century?
  (Also, re: that previous Libya/Iraq/Syria concession: let's be honest, the whole current Middle East clusterfuck is the legacy of European colonialism, including shit like the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the various Allied-controlled protectorates formed from previous Axis colonies (e.g. Libya) after WWII. I'm conceding those points because I can't be bothered in a Lemmy comment to do the research to trace exactly how the US involvement was rooted in a need to clean up messes left by the British and French, but I'm pretty darn confident the link is there.)
Spoiler alert: we're not going to start taking care of ourselves.
All that's going to happen is that the US will continue spending the same or more of the military, while others will also build up theirs and the relative strength of the US will diminish. You will definitely not be saving those billions.
you guys need to get your shit together and police your own continent.
We do? Increasingly we're having to secure it against US threats and meddling, though. And of course our actual police aren't as corrupt and murderous as yours, and our legal system offers far more basic human rights and protections than yours does (I've heard you don't even get the most basic rights like mandatory holiday and sick pay? Wild. You need to start fighting against your government for your basic rights).
we can start to take care of ourselves and our needs instead of blowing billions on places we destroyed
Have you tried not destroying places? You might not have to spend quite so much on reparations if you pace yourself a bit.
The world doesn't revolve around your country, and all of your nation's current major problems (oligarchy, late stage capitalism rot, poor citizen rights, poor/absent social services, poor education system, large class gap, poor environmental protections, etc etc) come from within, not - as your fascist self-proclaimed Dictator would have you believe - the evil foreigners trying to oppress/abuse you.
Nobody's country is perfect, mine isn't, yours isn't. We all have problems, and it's difficult to admit that our problems are more often than not of our own society's making...
Don't believe the oldest fascist trick in the book though - being told it's all somehow the fault of foreigners - to rally the people against a common foe whilst stripping away your own rights and building an authoritarian state bit by bit, destroying your own freedoms and eroding the moral core of your nation, all in the name of fighting that foe.