Trump Admin Shuts Down Mamdani's Attempt to Meet with Foreign Leader
President Donald Trump’s administration has thwarted a planned meeting between two prominent democratic socialists.
According to The Washington Post, U.S. diplomats in the Colombian capital of Bogotá told Colombian officials that a planned meeting between Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City and leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro in New York this week would violate U.S.-imposed visa restrictions against Petro.
Colombian officials took that to mean that the U.S. might arrest Petro if he went ahead with the Mamdani meeting.
Petro’s visa restrictions stem from comments he made outside United Nations headquarters in September 2025.
“I ask all the soldiers of the army of the U.S. not to point their rifles at humanity,” the Colombian president said to a group of pro-Palestinian supporters. “Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity.”
“A visa is a privilege, not a right,” a State Department official told the Post. “Any individual’s U.S. visa is at risk of revocation if they visit America and outrageously implore U.S. soldiers to disobey orders of the duly elected president of the United States.”
Petro has also accused Trump of being “complicit in genocide” for supporting Israel’s war in Gaza. Trump, meanwhile, called the democratic socialist a “lunatic who’s got a lot of problems, mental problems.”
The two presidents did have what Trump characterized as a “terrific” meeting in February.
Since then, however, Petro has reportedly irritated Secretary of State Marco Rubio by criticizing U.S. boat strikes in Latin America and the capture earlier this year of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
According to The New York Times, the Colombian president’s criticisms of the boat strikes in particular prompted sanctions from the U.S. Treasury. Federal prosecutors also launched an investigation into possible drug-trafficking ties.
Still, Petro has continued to criticize the Trump administration and its support for Israel.
At the UN on Wednesday, for instance, the Colombian president declared that “the state of Palestine should be free and sovereign.”
In the past, the Rubio-led State Department has not hesitated to use the revocation of visas as leverage against foreigners who express support for the Palestinian cause.
Most notably, in March 2025, federal agents arrested Rumeysa Ozturk, a Ph.D student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, who wrote a pro-Palestinian Op-Ed.
Then, in August, Rubio revoked the visas of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, along with 80 other officials.
Trump has responded to Petro’s criticisms by endorsing the right-wing candidate in Colombia’s upcoming presidential election, the Times reported.
Mamdani’s meeting with Petro had been scheduled for Friday at a university, where the mayor planned a public forum.
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