MEXICO CITY — For decades, Colombia and the United States have been devoted allies, sharing military intelligence, a robust trade relationship and a multibillion-dollar fight against drug trafficking.

Now that is all at risk as the U.S. ramps up deadly airstrikes off Colombia’s coast and the leaders of both nations trade scathing verbal attacks.

President Trump called Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter and Colombia’s first leftist president, an “illegal drug dealer.” Petro called Trump “rude” and accused the U.S. of murder, saying an American strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat had killed a Colombian fisherman in Colombian waters.

Petro has decried the massive buildup of U.S. troops, warships and jets in the Caribbean, which, he charges, aims to force a change of governments in neighboring Venezuela.

Relations between the nations hit their lowest point in memory Monday as the Colombian government recalled its ambassador to the United States, and Trump vowed to suspend all U.S. aid to Colombia and impose new tariffs on imports from the South American nation.

“Petro does nothing to stop” drug trafficking, Trump charged on his social media site, “despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America.”

The Colombian leader, Trump warned, “better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”

Petro has defended his record in deterring drug trafficking despite rising production in Colombia of coca plants, the raw material in cocaine. He has said the rampant consumption of illicit drugs in the United States and Europe is behind the bloody drug war in Latin America.

Meanwhile, the U.S. said Sunday that it had blown up yet another boat, this one allegedly associated with a Colombian rebel group. Petro said the boat in fact belonged to a “humble family.”

The growing binational crisis threatened to further destabilize a region already on edge over the U.S. military strikes. Some analysts said it threatened to embolden the same drug traffickers Trump claims to be targeting.

“In a fight between the world’s largest drug producer and the world’s largest drug consumer, only organized crime wins,” former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said at a forum in Barcelona, Spain. “As long as we have two presidents who insult each other on Twitter every day, [combating crime] will be more difficult.”

Colombia is facing its worst security crisis in a decade, with armed groups competing for control over drug trafficking, illegal gold mining and other illicit economies in the years since militants with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, gave up their arms in a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016.

If the U.S. ends its military and other aid to Colombia, the effect could be disastrous, said Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst for the Andes region at the International Crisis Group, a think tank.

The Colombian military, which has long been fortified by U.S. training, weapons and other aid, is so skilled that its members are paid by the U.S. to teach anti-narcotics operations in other parts of the world, she said. “If the United States was truly interested in combating organized crime and drug trafficking,” she said, “why would they alienate the one partner in the region who is capable and willing to help?”

“The U.S.-Colombia relationship has for many years transcended personal politics because both sides understood how important it was,” Dickinson continued. “Now the wisdom of the relationship that held it together for so long and made it so productive for both countries is being thrown out the window, and we’re losing decades of progress.”

Relations between the nations have been unraveling since January, when Trump returned to the White House for a second term.

After Petro refused to receive U.S. military flights of deported migrants, Trump threatened tariffs. Petro at first vowed retaliatory tariffs but backed down and agreed to accept the migrants to avert a trade war.

More recently, the State Department announced it was revoking Petro’s visa after an appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he decried U.S. support for Israel and called for American soldiers to disobey Trump and “obey the orders of humanity.”

The massing of U.S. forces in the Caribbean has further strained the relationship.

The Trump administration has stationed roughly 10,000 troops and a fleet of ships and aircraft in the Caribbean, the largest U.S. military buildup in the region in decades.

Although the force is ostensibly aimed at interrupting the drug trade, it is widely believed to be an effort to drive out Venezuela’s left-leaning autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, who, critics say, has plunged his nation into an economic and political crisis.

Petro warned against U.S. meddling in Venezuela in a post on X on Monday, saying Washington was after the nation’s expansive oil reserves.

“The Venezuelan people do not want invasions, blockades, or threats against them,” he wrote. “They do not like dictators, not domestic or foreign.”

Last month, the Trump administration decertified Colombia as partner in the war on drugs, a move that could cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars in annual aid, much of it for anti-drug efforts.

Petro’s spat with Trump has sparked intense controversy in Colombia, which is starkly divided ahead of next year’s presidential election. (Petro is constitutionally barred from seeking reelection.)

Petro’s supporters praised him for standing up to a global bully. But his critics said he has imperiled Colombia’s economy. The United States is Colombia’s top trading partner; it sent nearly $10 billion in exports to the U.S. in the first eight months of this year.

Petro’s provocative attitude with the Trump administration contrasts with that of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, a leftist who has sought to accommodate Trump to avoid punishing tariffs on Mexican exports to the United States. But many worry that Mexico could also be in the Trump administration’s military crosshairs, as it is the major supplier of fentanyl and other drugs to the U.S. market.

Washington — The relationship between President Trump and Elon Musk broke down in dramatic and public fashion on Thursday, with the president threatening to cancel Musk’s lucrative government contracts and Musk claiming that Mr. Trump could not have won the presidency without him, fueling a feud that erupted over Musk’s opposition to Republicans’ tax and budget bill.

In the afternoon, Musk dropped what he called “the really big bomb,” alleging that Mr. Trump’s name appeared in the files related to the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 while facing charges of sex trafficking. “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk wrote on X. “Have a nice day, DJT!” 

Trump officials vowed to unveil more files related to the Epstein case when the administration took power. In February, the Justice Department issued a limited release of unredacted versions of files that had been public for years, a move that was met with criticism by conservatives who have demanded more transparency.

White house Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded: “This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.” 

Mr. Trump soon responded with another post of his own: “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.”

Musk also expressed support for a post that said Mr. Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance. 

The break between the president and the world’s richest man originated over Musk’s ongoing criticism of Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” on Capitol Hill, which cuts taxes by trillions of dollars and implements Mr. Trump’s domestic agenda, including cutting hundreds of billions of dollars in spending. Musk has railed against the legislation as “outrageous” and “a disgusting abomination.” The Congressional Budget Office estimated on Wednesday that the bill would lead to an increase of $2.4 trillion in total deficits over the next 10 years, a conclusion that Republicans and Mr. Trump dispute.

“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday evening. “The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”

“I’m very disappointed in Elon”

The president was asked about Musk’s criticism for the first time publicly during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office earlier Thursday.

“Elon and I had a great relationship,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “I don’t know if we will anymore.”

Mr. Trump said Musk, the CEO of Tesla, was around for the whole process of crafting the bill. The president claimed he “never had a problem” with the legislation until provisions dealing with electric vehicle subsidies were eliminated, threatening Tesla’s business. The bill would roll back some of the clean energy tax credits under the Biden-era climate and health care law, phasing out a tax break for clean energy vehicles.

“I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot,” Mr. Trump told reporters, adding that Musk “worked hard” and did a “good job.” 

“And I’ll be honest, I think he misses the place,” the president continued. “He’s not the first. People leave my administration and they love us. And then, at some point, they miss it so badly. And some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile. I don’t know what it is. It’s sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it.” 

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election”…”Such ingratitude”

Appearing to respond to Mr. Trump’s comments in real time, Musk wrote on X: “Whatever. Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill.” In another post, he denied that he was aware of the details in the bill when it was crafted, writing that “this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk went on. “Such ingratitude,” he added. 

Musk spent roughly $277 million to elect Mr. Trump and Republican lawmakers last year.

“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave”

Mr. Trump volleyed back with attacks on Truth Social, claiming that he asked Musk to leave his administration and upset him with the legislative proposal ending the tax credits for electric vehicles.

“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” the president wrote.

Threats to “terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts”

The president also threatened to cancel Musk’s federal contracts, citing such a move as a cost-cutting measure.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” Mr. Trump said.

SpaceX and Tesla get billions of dollars a year from federal contracts and other programs. Shares of Tesla plummeted following Mr. Trump’s threat, dropping by as much as 18% in late trading.

Musk responded with a post on X saying, “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.” But he followed that comment a few hours later with another post saying, “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.” SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is used by NASA to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

The president’s comments expressing disappointment with Musk were a swift about-face. Less than a week ago, Mr. Trump gifted Musk a key to the White House as an expression of gratitude for his work with the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Musk wrapped up his time in the federal government Friday, as he reached the maximum amount of days he could serve as a special government employee. 

Mr. Trump said then that Musk was “really not leaving. He’s going to be back and forth, I think, I have a feeling.”

Musk’s opposition has raised questions about whether Republicans can remain united around the centerpiece legislation of Mr. Trump’s second-term agenda, but GOP leaders in Congress appeared undeterred Wednesday, as the Senate forged ahead on the legislation. Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson are expected to speak Thursday about the bill’s path forward.

Meeting with German chancellor takes a turn

Mr. Trump’s comments about Musk came as Merz and the president met to discuss trade and tariffs, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine and tensions in the Middle East. But the part of the meeting that was open to the press was dominated by the questions about Musk. 

“It’s an honor to have you,” Mr. Trump told the German leader, calling him a challenging negotiator but adding that he’s a great representative for Germany. 

It was their first in-person meeting since Merz, leader of Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union party, won a parliamentary vote to become chancellor last month following an election in February.

Merz brought a gift for Mr. Trump to the White House — an original copy of the birth certificate belonging to Mr. Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, in German and in English. 

Mr. Trump’s 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union are set to take effect July 9. The EU, which includes Germany, has said it’s preparing “countermeasures” to hit back. The 50% tariffs were set to start June 1, but Mr. Trump delayed the heavy tariffs after speaking with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Twenty-seven nations make up the EU. 

The Trump-Merz meeting also comes hours after the president signed a proclamation Wednesday banning foreign nationals from a dozen countries, including Afghanistan and Haiti. 

Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump said he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about tariffs and trade for roughly 90 minutes Thursday morning. The president told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday that he’s accepted Xi’s invitation to visit China, and will go there with first lady Melania Trump “at a certain point.”