Donald Trump’s tactics to ensure an “America First” foreign policy were on full display over the weekend as the president strong-armed Colombia into accepting planeloads of undocumented migrants that they previously turned away. But Trump’s first instinct to threaten the trade ally with massive tariffs if they didn’t bend to his will could actually benefit China in the long run, according to a new analysis by Politico.
In fact, after placating Trump’s “hair-trigger response” to Colombia’s attempts to defy the U.S. president, China’s ambassador to Colombia posted on X, “reminding followers that Colombia’s foreign minister visited Beijing last year and described the bilateral relationship as the ‘best moment’ in 45 years,'” the Politico article said.
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Inu Manak, a trade policy fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Politico, “He went after a state that he knows he could push a little bit. So it’s sort of a setting example with a weaker target, and then claim victory really quickly to show how tough he can be as a negotiator. But I wouldn’t imagine Canada and Mexico are going to fold that fast.”
Manak continued, “Colombia is a prime example of how the United States is going to lose ground further in Latin America to Chinese influence there. Because it’s a great way for China to say, ‘Hey, you want financing. You want all these things? We’ll help you out. Like, you can’t trust the United States.’”
If Trump’s actions with Colombia are any indication of what can be expected over the next four years, Trump’s aggressive foreign policy push, “could backfire in the long run, further destabilizing an already tenuous global order and even pushing would-be partner countries closer to Beijing,” the article stated.