Jesse Scheckner
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump reinstated Cuba as a federally recognized state sponsor of terrorism, reversing an executive order by his White House predecessor to lift the designation from the island nation.
The move came amid a flurry of actions Trump took Monday after being sworn in as the 47th United States President.
Unlike with other orders to declare a national emergency at the southern border and delay a ban of the TikTok social media app, Trump did not offer a statement to accompany his decision on Cuba.
But it drew swift censure from Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who called it “an act of arrogance” and a “fraudulent designation.”
“This is not surprising,” he wrote on X. “(Trump’s) goal is to continue strengthening the cruel economic war against Cuba for the purpose of domination.”
Díaz-Canel went on to say that the state sponsor of terrorism designation has caused supply shortages for Cubans and “a significant increase in the migratory flow” from Cuba to the U.S.
The Biden administration notified Congress last week of its plan to lift the designation from Cuba, which sits alongside three other hostile nations — Iran, North Korea and Syria — as terrorism sponsors on the U.S. Department of State website.
Biden also suspended Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which enabled Cuban exiles in the U.S. to sue foreign countries for “trafficking” property confiscated from them during the Cuban Revolution.
Trump did not reverse that second act.
The move by Biden came as part of a deal facilitated by the Catholic Church to free political prisoners on the island, including hundreds put behind bars after mass protests in mid-2021.
Within days of Biden’s order, Cuba had already started releasing people. Cuba said it would release 553 prisoners in total, crediting the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee celebration for the change rather than alterations in U.S. foreign policy.
Biden’s decision to lift sanctions against Cuba drew bipartisan condemnation, particularly from elected and community leaders in South Florida, which has the largest Cuban American population in the U.S.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart called it “shameful and an aggression to the national security interest.” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said that while freeing political prisoners “is cause for celebration,” it was “naïve” to believe easing relations with Cuba “would signal a change in treatment for the Cuban people.”
Marco Rubio, who was sworn in Tuesday morning as U.S. Secretary of State, said during his Senate confirmation hearing last week that he had “zero doubt” Cuba meets “all the qualifications for being a state sponsor of terrorism” and vowed to reverse Biden’s action.
Trump’s move Monday echoed one he made after taking over the Oval Office from Barack Obama. The President increased financial and banking restrictions against the Cuban regime and reimposed travel restrictions to and from the island that Obama had eased.
