Donald Trump’s Colombian triumph shows what happens when a leader is unembarrassed about defending his nation’s sovereignty

 

By Nile Gardiner

With Donald Trump back in the White House, leaders across the world are sitting up. They will have to get used to something very new: an America unembarrassed about putting its own national interests first, and specifically in making the security of its borders one of the central aims of its foreign policy.

The South American nation of Colombia received an early preview of how President Trump will project US power. After initially refusing to accept US military planes carrying Colombian illegal migrants, Trump threatened a wave of tariffs and visa restrictions on the country’s political leadership unless it agreed to accept back its own citizens. Within hours on Sunday, Colombia had complied with Washington’s demands.

This was one of the most swiftly resolved diplomatic stand-offs involving the United States in decades, and a stunning early success for the Trump White House. It sent a clear message that Donald Trump is putting America first on the world stage and is willing to stand up for and defend American interests with strength and resolve.

While Joe Biden would have spent months, even years, negotiating the return of any illegal aliens to their country of origin, Trump only needed a couple of hours to repatriate people who had no business being in the United States.

He has assembled a formidable border security team under border czar Tom Homan, a powerful signal that the United States will no longer serve as a haven for illegal migrants, including some of Latin America’s deadliest gangs. After four years of weak-kneed “sleepy” Joe Biden, there is a new sheriff in town, and there will now be zero tolerance for those who enter America illegally.

Under Biden’s watch, over 11 million migrants poured illegally over America’s southern border. As many as possible among this number will now be sent back.

This is the will of the American people. President Trump was elected with an overwhelming mandate to secure America’s border and deport those who should not be in the United States. The actions he is taking now to protect America’s national sovereignty should serve as a role model for the UK and nations across Europe who are facing the same challenges posed by mass migration.

If only the British people had a firm leader like Trump who was willing to stand up for them fearlessly on the world stage. The US President has achieved more in his first week in office than the British Prime Minister will likely achieve in his whole term. Sir Keir Starmer cowers behind the European Convention on Human Rights and bows down to supranational courts and institutions, from the International Criminal Court to the European Union.

In marked contrast, President Trump only recognises US sovereignty, and the democratic wishes of the voters of the United States. He understands that a nation that does not protect its borders cannot hope to remain the world’s superpower. A strong and revitalised America is great not only for the American people, but for the entire free world.

It is refreshing to have an American President willing to unapologetically advance the interests of his own nation – one who simply doesn’t care what the United Nations, the ICC and EU thinks, or what the privileged liberal elites at Davos are saying as they quaff glasses of champagne while pontificating on Third World foreign aid and net zero.

Trump is overseeing a conservative revolution in the United States, one that will have a huge impact abroad as well. The core principles are already abundantly clear: sovereignty, security and the rule of law.

After the decline and despair of the feckless Biden years, America is indeed back. As Colombia’s socialist president discovered, the United States will now act decisively to protect the American people, and extend zero tolerance for anyone who interferes.

Europe’s leaders should take note. President Trump will aggressively assert America’s interests within the transatlantic alliance, as well. That means far more defence spending among Nato allies, the elimination of the EU’s protectionist economic policies, and the defence of freedom of speech on US tech platforms such as X.

 

Nile Gardiner is the director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC / Source: The Telegraph