President Trump was meeting privately with President Gustavo Petro of Colombia at the White House on Tuesday, the first face-to-face encounter between two leaders who have spent months verbally attacking each other.
There was reason to believe that they could clash again, experts say. The men share a penchant for unscripted speeches and fiery accusations, and Mr. Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, has taken on Mr. Trump for more than a year.
But there have also been signs that the tension is easing.
Last month, after a U.S. military raid in Venezuela, Mr. Trump suggested that Colombia could be the next country he would take military action against. But the two leaders had an amicable phone call a few days later, and Mr. Trump announced that Mr. Petro would be visiting Washington.
“Somehow, after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice — he changed his attitude very much,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Petro during a question-and-answer session in the Oval Office on Monday.
Mr. Trump said that he anticipated having a “good” meeting with Mr. Petro on Tuesday.
“We’re going to be talking about drugs,” he said, “because tremendous amounts of drugs come out of his country.”
Mr. Trump has claimed that Colombia is flooding the United States with cocaine.
Mr. Petro’s government said on Monday that it would be reviewing data on what it describes as its success in seizing cocaine, and talking about efforts to help producers replace coca — the base product for cocaine — with other, legal crops.
Mr. Petro’s gifts for Mr. Trump are said to include coffee and chocolate produced as part of crop-substitution efforts.
If the meeting goes smoothly, it will represent an about-face for the two leaders, whose countries have for decades been strong allies.
Just days after Mr. Trump took office last year, Mr. Petro began challenging him on deportations. He then attacked his position on Israel and Gaza and denounced the U.S. military’s boat strikes on alleged drug traffickers as “murder.”
U.S. officials revoked Mr. Petro’s visa and imposed sanctions on him along with members of his family and his government.
Last month, when Mr. Petro reacted negatively to the U.S. military capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, Mr. Trump threatened to take military action on Colombia, too, calling Mr. Petro a “sick man.”
Mr. Petro asked Colombians to rally to his side, calling for nationwide demonstrations and saying that Mr. Trump had awakened the “jaguar” in the heart of Latin Americans.
While Mr. Petro posted defiant messages on social media, Colombia’s ambassador to the United States rushed to arrange a phone call with Mr. Trump to de-escalate tensions.
Afterward, both men spoke in glowing terms about the phone call.
But last week, Mr. Petro again made public remarks in which he called out Mr. Trump for removing Mr. Maduro, and said that in the United States, migrants were treated like “slaves.”
The comments revived concerns that Mr. Petro’s White House meeting could contain surprises.
Before leaving Colombia, Mr. Petro called on Colombians to take to the streets in solidarity with him and in support of what he called a “pact for life,” alluding to what Mr. Petro said he hopes will also come of the meeting: action on the climate crisis.
In Washington, a rally was planned for Tuesday morning outside the Colombian embassy.
Max Bearak, Simón Posada and Federico Rios contributed reporting.
Annie Correal is a Times reporter covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
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