Trump Endorses De la Espriella for Colombia’s June 21 Runoff — Petro Calls It an Attack on Sovereignty

MIAMI — President Donald Trump endorsed Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella on Tuesday, injecting the full weight of the American presidency into Colombia’s June 21 runoff and drawing an immediate rebuke from outgoing President Gustavo Petro, who called the endorsement an attack on Colombia’s sovereignty.

Trump endorsed de la Espriella in a social media post late Tuesday, writing: “Abelardo fights tirelessly for, and loves, his Great Country and People, just like I do for the United States of America.”

“Congratulations to Colombian presidential candidate “El Tigre,” Abelardo de la Espriella, a smart, strong, and tenacious leader, on his resounding victory in the first round of the Colombian presidential election,” Trump wrote. “As president, Abelardo would be a tremendous success in leading Colombia to grow its economy, create jobs, promote trade, stop illegal immigration, fight crime and drugs, and restore public order.”

De la Espriella, who won the May 31 first round with 43.7% of the vote, thanked Trump directly for the endorsement — a gesture that underscored the degree to which the Colombian right has positioned Washington’s backing as a campaign asset rather than a diplomatic liability.

Accusations of Intervention

The Trump endorsement is the latest in a series of moves by the United States and its regional allies that the Colombian left has characterized as coordinated foreign interference in a sovereign democratic process.

“The results of this election are very important to the future of Colombia and its relationship to the United States,” Trump said in his social media post.

The endorsement follows Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa’s decision last week to eliminate all tariffs on Colombian imports following a ten-minute video call with de la Espriella — bypassing the Petro government entirely — and the Trump administration's designation of Brazil’s PCC and Comando Vermelho as foreign terrorist organizations at the personal request of Flávio Bolsonaro following a White House meeting.

Taken together, the moves form a visible pattern of Washington-aligned governments in the region coordinating around preferred electoral outcomes.

Petro responded immediately on social media. “When one country interferes in another country’s decisions, freedom dies,” he wrote.

The outgoing president, who has already rejected the first-round results without evidence, framed Trump’s endorsement as confirmation of the foreign interference he has alleged throughout the campaign.

The Shadow of “El Tigre”

Trump’s use of de la Espriella’s campaign nickname — “El Tigre,” or The Tiger — signals a level of personal familiarity that goes beyond a routine diplomatic statement. The nickname has become the rallying cry of de la Espriella’s movement, deployed at rallies in Barranquilla and Bogotá and across his social media presence.

The endorsement represents a fresh bid by Trump to inject himself into the politics of a Latin American neighbor — a pattern that has become a defining feature of the administration’s hemispheric strategy. Trump has publicly backed Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil, supported Ecuador’s Noboa, and aligned openly with Argentina’s Milei. The Colombia endorsement extends that pattern to one of the hemisphere’s most consequential elections of 2026.

For de la Espriella, the Trump backing is a double-edged sword. Among his conservative base — which strongly favors closer alignment with Washington after four years of Petro’s adversarial posture toward the United States — the endorsement is a validation. Among undecided voters, however, who may be sensitive to perceptions of foreign influence in Colombian politics, it carries risk.

What It Means for June 21

The endorsement arrives at a moment when de la Espriella already enters the runoff as a heavy favorite. With former President Álvaro Uribe’s Democratic Center consolidated behind him, and right-wing candidate Paloma Valencia having instructed her voters to back the runoff frontrunner, the structural arithmetic strongly favors de la Espriella.

“In my government, there will be no peace processes,” de la Espriella has said, criticizing Petro’s policy of negotiating with armed groups, which he argues allowed guerrilla organizations and criminal gangs to strengthen through drug trafficking and illegal gold mining.

Iván Cepeda’s path to victory on June 21 runs through voter mobilization, fraud allegations, and the hope that Trump’s visible involvement will produce a backlash among Colombians sensitive to foreign interference. Whether that argument can overcome a first-round deficit of more than 650,000 votes — in a country that has been moving right for four years — is the central question of the campaign’s final three weeks.

The window closes June 21.