Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Tuesday that he is no longer welcome to visit the U.S., local reports said.
He claimed at a Cabinet meeting at Casa de Narino—the presidential palace in Bogotá—that President Donald Trump revoked his visa, using the nickname “Donald Duck” for his counterpart.
“I can’t go anymore because I think they took away my visa,” Petro said, according to a report in the newspaper El Tiempo. The comment seemingly explained why he was not present for a meeting of the International Monetary Fund on Monday in Washington, D.C.
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“I didn’t need a visa, but oh well. I’ve seen Donald Duck several times, so I’m going to see other things,” he added, seemingly throwing shade at Trump.
The remarks come as Colombian Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia prepares for a trip to New York to speak before the United Nations Security Council, the Bogotá City Paper reported.
Colombia’s first leftist president will now be replaced for official business by the minister of finance, Germán Avila, who is already in Washington, D.C. this week.
The international snub follows Trump threatening “decisive retaliatory measures” against Colombian government officials who refused to let a couple of U.S. Military flights packed with migrants land on Jan. 26.
Although the measures were later suspended following diplomatic negotiations, Petro’s remarks suggest that sanctions may have already been enforced against him.
In January, Trump announced a series of “retaliatory measures” on Truth Social, which included 25 percent emergency tariffs, a travel ban, and the immediate revocation of visas for Colombian government officials and their allies and supporters.
Just hours after Trump announced steep tariffs on Colombia as punishment for not accepting American deportees, Petro clapped back with his own retaliatory measures.
He announced that he had told his “foreign trade minister to raise import tariffs from the U.S. by 25%”—matching Trump’s promised tariffs.
The Colombian president did not clarify exactly when his travel visa was suspended. But his last visit to the States was in Sept. 2024 when he attended a climate conference in Chicago and the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Daily Mail reported.
Amid his clash with Trump in January, an old video of Petro resurfaced online thanks to American MAGA accounts, accusing him of infidelity with a transgender woman.
The viral footage allegedly shows Petro walking hand in hand with transgender newscaster Linda Yepes during a trip to Panama.
Petro, who is married to philanthropist Verónica Alcocer, has not denied being the man seen in the video, The Hindustan Times reported.
Back in April 2023, Joe Biden hosted Petro at the White House; however, Colombia’s relationship with the U.S. has changed under the current administration.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, speaking to BLU Radio, declined to confirm the accuracy of Petro’s statement, citing confidentiality regulations. They emphasized that “visa records are confidential under U.S. law” and noted that there has been “no formal notification of a visa revocation.”
A White House official stated that the Colombian president’s claims were not true when the Daily Beast reached out to the Trump administration for comment.
