Trump’s confrontation with Colombia is a warning to all leaders.

Less than a week into his presidency, Donald Trump has been embroiled in a global tariff dispute for the first time. And the target wasn’t China, Mexico or Canada — frequent subjects of his ire — it was Colombia, one of America’s closest allies in South America.

Colombia’s fault was that it failed to transport two US flights carrying deported refugees by military, not civilian, aircraft. This was enough to make Trump threaten to drop the hammer.

“We will not allow the government of Colombia to violate its legal obligations regarding the admission and return of criminals who were forcibly brought to the United States,” Trump tweeted.

In addition to the proposed 25 percent tariffs, Trump said the United States would impose a travel ban and “immediate visa revocation” on Colombian government officials as well as its allies and supporters.

But the White House later said Colombia had now agreed to accept refugees arriving by US military planes “without restriction or delay”. As a result, the US will not go through tariffs.

In his first week in office, the US president appeared to prioritize immigration enforcement over trade measures – despite the latter being a key campaign slogan. As if to drive that point home, Trump now seems poised to punish governments he deems not sufficiently supporting America’s new hard-line immigration police.

He is issuing a warning to America’s allies and adversaries: If they do not cooperate with the US, the consequences will be dire.

Colombia has backed away from the tariff war, but the strategy is a challenge for the new Trump administration.

If future sanctions result in higher prices for American consumers, will the American people protest? Will they be willing to take some financial pains to advance Trump’s immigration priorities?

The U.S. imports 27 percent of its coffee from Colombia, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as other commodities such as bananas, crude oil, avocados and flowers. Coffee imports are worth nearly $2bn (£1.6bn).

Colombian President Gustavo Petro was the first to respond, saying that his country would receive the returning citizens “on civilian planes without treating them as criminals.”

It’s no secret that Petro doesn’t like Donald Trump — he’s previously criticized his policies on immigration and the environment.

In a lengthy response to X, Trump accused the US president of treating Colombians as an “inferior race”, saying they are “destroying the human race out of greed”.

Petro described himself as “stubborn” and said Trump would try to “stage a coup” with “economic strength and arrogance” but would fight back in short order.

More significantly, Petro said, “From today, Colombia is open to the whole world, with open arms.”

This is something that should worry a US president who wants to crack down on immigration. His administration officials have made it clear that the mission will require looking beyond the Mexican border.

Trump’s deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, has argued that it should be a “global obligation of US foreign policy” to “work with other countries to stop such an influx of refugees.” Sunday scrimmages make working together much less difficult.

Every year, tens of thousands of migrants from around the world, from India to China to South America, head north to the US and travel through Colombia through the Darien Gap – a key bottleneck north of the Panama-Colombia border. It is a dangerous journey often favored by criminal gangs.

In response to Trump’s actions, President Petrou said if talks to curb immigration through Darien were to end, “illegal acts would increase.” Those comments could be seen as a threat of more illegal immigrants on the road.

Petro said his country won’t accept Colombians deported from the US – they just need to be “treated with dignity.”

Even after Colombia took steps to defuse the dispute, it said talks would be held “to ensure the dignity of our citizens.”

But this type of tariff is a test of will — and could still be imposed by other countries that disagree with U.S. interests. From the looks of it, this is just Trump’s opening move.