President Obama and President Raul Castro
President Donald Trump will reportedly announce his new Cuba policy Friday in Miami, which may reverse some of Barack Obama’s attempts to improve America’s decades-long hostile relationship with its neighbor.
The Obama administration secretly began the process of normalizing relations between the two nations before an official announcement was made in late 2014. The easing of the U.S. embargo led to increased U.S. investment and tourism on the island. More hotels opened, daily flights began operating, and U.S. companies invested in Cuban agriculture projects.
U.S. tourism to Cuba has more than tripled since 2014.
But Trump is now reportedly considering banning business with the Cuban military and clamping down on travel to Cuba while maintaining the diplomatic relations restored by Obama. While Trump has been quiet on Cuba since taking office — though the plan to reverse Cuba policy has reportedly been set for some time, the administration has had its implementation repeatedly delayed by more pressing matters — he periodically talked tough on Cuba on the […]
Trump’s policies cannot be understood in terms of a coherent ideology, for he has none. Much of them can be understood in terms of enriching himself, for his ethics are like those of a third world strong man, or perhaps Vladimir Putin. But there is more.
Richard Branson, who founded Virgin Airlines, had lunch with Trump at the latter’s request. Afterwards he reported he had never met a man more obsessed with revenge. Obama embarrassed him at a White House Correspondent’s Dinner. Not only did he do what he could to wreck the dinner this year, he has gone out of his way to try and destroy everything Obama did, regardless of its impact on the nation. This is the framework where his idiocy on Cuba can be understood.
Trump is a man motivated by money and revenge, and perhaps nothing else.