President-elect Donald Trump did not mince words in his statement following the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, making a serious foreign policy commitment.
The incoming president took to Twitter, warning that if Cuba is unwilling to make “a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people, and the U.S. as a whole,” that he would terminate the deal.
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
Top surrogates for Trump, including newly appointed administration officials, have said that the incoming administration will “absolutely” consider rolling back President Obama’s normalization of trade with the island nation.
“There’s going to have to be some movement from Cuba in order to have a relationship with the United States,” Reince Priebus, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, told Fox News Sunday. Cuban leaders will have to show distinct progress on “lifting repression, freeing political prisoners, opening markets and assuring religious freedom,” he said.
Following Castro’s death, the incoming president’s statements contrasted sharply with Obama’s official remarks. “History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him,” Obama meekly concluded. Trump was more direct in his criticism of the dictator.
“Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades,” Trump said in a statement released Saturday. “Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights,” Trump continued. (RELATED: Trump’s Brutally Honest Castro Statement Proves Hes No Obama)
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