Donald Trump said Friday he would suspend efforts to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba as president if the Castro regime continues to violate religious freedoms and imprison dissidents of the country’s communist government.
“All of the concessions that Barack Obama has granted the Castro regime were done through executive order, which means the next president can reverse them,” Trump told voters at a rally in Miami, where thousands of Cuban migrants have settled since former Cuban President Fidel Castro assumed power in 1959.
“And that, I will do, unless the Castro regime meets our demands — not my demands, our demands,” vowed the Republican presidential nominee.
If elected in November, Trump said he would demand that the Castro regime grant “religious and political freedom” to the Cuban people and free its political prisoners. Cheers rippled through the arena where Trump’s rally was held as he discussed his policy toward Cuba.
The candidate’s remarks Friday evening mark a shift from where he stood last fall, when he appeared to approve of President Obama restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba.
“50 years is enough,” Trump told the Daily Caller last September. “I think it’s fine, but we should have made a better deal.”
“The concept of opening with Cuba is fine,” he repeated.
Trump has never addressed the issue at length, despite his frequent travel to Florida, a state that is critical to his chances of winning the presidency and which he called his “second home” on Friday night.
