Earlier this morning Trump blasted the following tweet threatening to “terminate” the US-Cuba deal unless “Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people.”
If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2016
Of course, this followed Trump’s rather factual reaction to Castro’s death on Saturday.
Fidel Castro is dead!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2016
Meanwhile, between her Romney bashing rants over the weekend, Kellyanne Conway also took the time to criticize Obama’s deal with Cuba saying that “We pretend that we’re actually doing business with the Cuban people now when, really, we’re doing business with the Cuban government and the Cuban military.”
Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former campaign manager and senior advisor, commented this weekend on Trump’s stance, saying “on the issue of diplomatic relations being re-opened with Cuba, what President-elect Trump says is that he’d be open to that himself, but that we got nothing in return.”
“We’re allowing commercial aircraft there. We pretend that we’re actually doing business with the Cuban people now when, really, we’re doing business with the Cuban government and the Cuban military. They still control everything,” she said.
All of this comes after Obama’s executive order seeking to “normalize relations” with Cuba back in 2014 and his “historic” visit to the island back in March of this year.
As a reminder, here is how Obama characterized the goals of his Cuba executive order:
Re-establish diplomatic relations
Our diplomatic relations with Cuba were severed in January of 1961. The President is immediately reopening discussions with Cuba and working to re-establish an embassy in Havana in the next coming months. The U.S. will work with Cuba on matters of mutual concern that advance U.S. national interests, such as migration, counternarcotics, environmental protection, and trafficking in persons, among other issues.
More effectively empower the Cuban people by adjusting regulations
The President is taking steps to improve travel and remittance policies that will further increase people-to-people contact, support civil society in Cuba, and enhance the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people.
Facilitate an expansion of travel to Cuba
The U.S. is restoring up to 110 direct, commercial roundtrip flights a day. With expanded travel, Americans will be able to help support the growth of civil society in Cuba more easily, and provide business training for private Cuban businesses and small farmers. Americans will also be able to provide other support for the growth of Cuba’s nascent private sector.
Grant general licenses for authorized travelers
Authorize expanded sales and exports of certain goods and services from the U.S. to Cuba
The expansion will seek to empower the nascent Cuban private sector and make it easier for Cuban citizens to have access to certain lower-priced goods to improve their living standards and gain greater economic independence from the state.
Authorize American citizens to import additional goods from Cuba
Licensed U.S. travelers to Cuba will be authorized to import $400 worth of goods from Cuba, of which no more than $100 can consist of tobacco products and alcohol combined.
Initiate new efforts to increase Cubans’ access to communications and their ability to communicate freely
Cuba has an Internet penetration of about five percent – one of the lowest rates in the world. The cost of telecommunications in Cuba is exorbitantly high, while the services offered are extremely limited. Now, telecommunications providers will be allowed to establish the necessary mechanisms, including infrastructure, in Cuba to provide commercial telecommunications and internet services.
Of course, since Obama’s Cuba policy was implemented via executive order, rather than an act of Congress, Trump could just as easily undo it all with a swipe of a pen….one more component of the “Obama legacy” down the drain?
via http://ift.tt/2gzlNPu Tyler Durden