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Donald Trump had threatened South American nation with ‘emergency 25 percent tariffs’ and a number of ‘decisive retaliatory measures’ after it stopped two repatriation flights from landing
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Washington will not impose sanctions and tariffs on Colombia after the South American nation agreed to accept deported migrants from the United States, the White House said in a statement late on Sunday.
“The Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay,” it said.
President Donald Trump had earlier fired back at Colombia with “emergency 25 percent tariffs” and a number of “decisive retaliatory measures” after the country’s president, Gustavo Petro, blocked two repatriation flights from landing.
He had added that a travel ban and visa revocations will be imposed on Colombian government officials as well as “all allies and supporters”.
This comes after Petro said in a series of posts on X that Colombia would not accept military deportation flights from the U.S. until the Trump White House sets up a process to treat Colombian migrants with “dignity and respect.”
“I do not authorize the entry of North American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory,” Petro said on X. “The U.S. must establish a protocol of dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.”
Meanwhile, the fallout of Trump’s actions against any diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts within the federal government continues.
The Air Force is removing training courses that included videos of its Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the female World War II pilots who ferried warplanes for the military. This comes as agencies and departments scramble to comply with Trump’s crackdown on DEI efforts.
US pauses Colombia tariffs and sanctions plan
Washington will not impose sanctions and tariffs on Colombia after the South American nation agreed to accept deported migrants from the US, the White House press secretary said in a statement late on Sunday.
Carrie Underwood’s rendition of “America the Beautiful” at President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration went viral after being hit by technical difficulties, but all that extra attention failed to result in an increase in listenership for the American Idol winner.
In fact, her streaming numbers actually fell on Inauguration Day. According to entertainment data analysts Luminate, her music was streamed 1.46 million times on Monday January 20, down six percent from the previous Monday when it was streamed 1.55 million times.
Billboard reports that rapper Nelly, who performed at President Trump’s inaugural Liberty Ball on Monday, also saw a decline in listenership. His songs were streamed 1.54 million times on inauguration day, down from 1.63 million a week earlier.
Both artists did see a small increase in digital download sales, although neither managed to top the 1,000 downloads mark that day.
Read more:
Nelly, who performed at an inaugural ball, also saw his streaming numbers dip
The lessons of Trump’s Presidency 2.0 are that if he says it, he probably means it. He said he’d stop US aid to Ukraine, and he has. In his latest comments on Gaza, he has thrown his weight behind a far-right Israeli-fringe idea to depopulate the enclave.
He told reporters flying with him on Air Force One that he’d just had a call with Jordan’s king, Abdullah II. “I said to him, ‘I’d love for you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess,’” Trump told reporters.
He added that he would also like Egypt to take in more Palestinians and that he would speak to the country’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, on Sunday.
Read more:
The US president’s controversial comments on Gaza ignite debate over human rights, writes Sam Kiley, but could be seen as a policy of ’ethnic cleansing’
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove visited Chicago on Sunday to witness the start of ramped-up immigration enforcementin the nation’s third-largest city promised by the Trump administration, though few details of the operation were made public.
Bove said he was in Chicago on Sunday morning and observed Department of Homeland Security agents, along with assisting federal agencies — including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives. He didn’t say where the operations took place in the city or detail any arrests.
“We will support everyone at the federal, state, and local levels who joins this critical mission to take back our communities,” Bove said in a statement. “We will use all available tools to address obstruction and other unlawful impediments to our efforts to protect the homeland. Most importantly, we will not rest until the work is done.”
Read more:
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove has visited Chicago to personally observe the start of an immigration enforcement crackdown long promised by President Donald Trump’s administration in the nation’s third-largest city
In keeping with his promise to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that prohibits the the use of affirmative action or other diversity measures as well as revoked a batch of decades-old policies that protect federal employees from discrimination
The order “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” rescinds guidance dating back to former president Lyndon Johnson’s administration that intended to protect and strengthen protections for federal workers.
Trump claimed it was necessary to backpedal DEI programs because they are “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral.”
Read more:
For decades, presidents have issued executive orders expanding and strengthening diversity programs within the federal workforce – Trump revoked a batch on Tuesday
Donald Trump used an executive order on gender this week to gut a major federal law offering protections against the sky-high rate of sexual violence faced by the most vulnerable individuals inside the federal prison system.
On Monday, the president signed an order requiring the government only recognize a person’s gender as defined by whether their biological sex at birth is deemed male or female, effectively erasing transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people from federal law.
Buried in the fine print was a change to what the order called Part 115.41 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations. That provision is better known by its more common name: the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).
Read more:
Transgender people face the highest levels of sexual violence of any group in prison, but Trump executive order rolls back protections for their safety, Josh Marcus reports
“The arrangement between Lebanon and Israel, monitored by the United States, will continue to be in effect until February 18, 2025,” the White House said Sunday evening. “The Government of Lebanon, the Government of Israel, and the Government of the United States will also begin negotiations for the return of Lebanese prisoners captured after October 7, 2023.”
A longtime backer of President Donald Trump, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, said Sunday that he thinks the new president’s choice to pardon January 6 defendants was a “mistake.”
“Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently I think was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that’s an OK thing to do,” Graham said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Graham went on to connect Trump’s pardons of violent criminals to former President Joe Biden’s choice to pardon a number of members of his family in the final hours of his presidency.
“You know, Biden pardoned half his family going out the door. I think most Americans, if this continues … will revisit the pardon power of the president if this continues,” Graham added. “As to pardoning violent people who beat up cops, I think that’s a mistake.”
Read more:
‘Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently I think was a mistake,’ Lindsey Graham says
When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth starts his first official day on Monday morning, he will face a daunting array of issues to tackle — from global conflicts and border security to administrative tasks.
At the top of his list is addressing President Donald Trump‘s priority to strengthen the U.S. military presence along the southern border and reviewing whether active-duty forces should be used for law enforcement — something done rarely.
Dozens of other issues will compete for his attention, including developing the Pentagon‘s massive budget, decisions about aid to Ukraine, support for the ceasefire in Gaza, troop deployments in the Middle East. Not to mention Trump directives to rid the federal government of diversity programs and personnel as well as moves to cut waste and remove any lingering Biden administration backers.
Read more:
There will be a lot on the plate for new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when he steps into his office on the Pentagon’s third floor E Ring
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