"Donald Duck" and diplomacy: Colombian president mocks Trump after visa dispute

The Colombian President has said he ‘can’t go to America’ anymore after Donald Trump allegedly cancelled his visa, and has revealed his nickname for the US leader.

President Gustavo Petro, explaining why he can’t attend an upcoming meeting in the US, said: ‘I can’t go anymore because I think they took away my visa.’

He added: ‘I didn’t need a visa, but oh well. I’ve seen Donald Duck several times, so I’m going to see other things.’

The tongue-in-cheek nickname was revealed by the Colombian leader after a period of heightened tensions between Trump and Petro.

Earlier this year, Trump threatened to retaliate against the South American nation for refusing to let US flights with migrants land in Colombia.

Those measures appear to be the travel ban, tariffs and visa cancellations of Colombian government members and supporters, which were later revoked when Colombia agreed to accept the flights.

But looking at his nickname for Trump, it appears Petro still finds the situation funny.

Trump’s nickname may be laughable, but it might not stick.

Trump has impressive resilience when it comes to controversies and scandals, which seems to stem from his fiercely loyal voter base, who tend to dismiss accusations made against him as politically-motivated attacks or smears.

Though he’s the target of some nicknames himself, Trump is also famous for the ones he gives his opponents.

In 2023, Trump has retired his infamous ‘Crooked Hillary’ nickname in order to apply it towards Joe Biden.

He said at the time: ‘‘I will be retiring the name “Crooked” from Hillary Clinton.’

‘I’m going to give her a new name – I don’t know, like maybe “Lovely Hillary” or “Beautiful Hillary” – but I’m going to retire the name “Crooked” so that we can use the name for Joe Biden, because he’ll be known from now on as “Crooked Joe Biden.”‘

Trump is known to come up with insulting nicknames for his political opponents.

In the 2020 election cycle, he called another Democratic candidate, Elizabeth Warren, ‘Pocahontas’ over her claim that she had Native American heritage.

Earlier this year, he nicknamed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis a potential challenger for the Republican nomination, ‘DeSanctus’.