Trump wins showdown with Columbian President Petro

Petro might have been punching up a weight class or two here

This was all over the news this weekend, but I think the best part of this whole deal was watching the left try to make it into a winning issue.

I was watching not just politicians but the media in general just pouncing all of over the horrible mistake Trump made by trying to go up against the likes of President Petro. He was being embarrassed. Petro would fight back with tariffs of his own. People would hate Trump because the price of coffee would double. Oh and there would be no flowers for the upcoming Valentines day.

Now I tossed out a question on one of my various monikers over at Political Wire and it wasn't very popular.

Downvoted by nine people simply for asking an uncomfortable question. Many suggested that there was no reason for Petro to concede anything to Trump and that he had the better hand and was holding the bigger stick apparently. You know, because all of the coffee drinkers would make Trump back down apparently. Trump was being played and everyone knew it.

But low and behold Petro does back down, pretty much completely after his country revolted and suggested that 500,000 Columbian families that depend on the coffee exports to the US could not suffer because Petro wanted to try to challenge Trump. But, you wouldn't know it by the headline over at PW.

Now I must admit, very few people even over on Goddard's site were suggesting that it was Trump that backed down. Even given the opportunity Goddard was giving them to bend the reality and gloat that it was Trump who backed down, they pretty much knew better. The thread is mostly people now pissed off at Petro for caving to Trump and demanding that the entire world is capitulating to Trump because he is a bully. This will only make it worse, people suggested. Trump will only become a bigger bully.

But perhaps at issue here isn't Trump's behavior, but it is the behavior of rest of the world who are now going to push their boundaries. Just like if you get a new dog, or a teacher takes on a new class, there is a pushing of the boundaries to see what the subjects can and cannot get away with. This appears to be going on right now with Trump, and the answer appears to be that Trump is not letting anyone get away with anything. Certainly he was not going to spend all the money to send these people to Columbia, only to have Columbia turn them away, and then ask Petro what he could do for Petro's sake to make sure it doesn't happen again.

When you take a swing at Trump, he takes a bigger swing right back. Not sure why anyone expects anything differently.