Ten bucks Trump couldn’t pick the guy on the right out of a lineup. (Photo by Jorge Rey/Getty Images)
Fidel Castro: I will not rest until the United States is destroyed!
Lackey: The U.S. has elected Donald Trump President.
Fidel: Peace, out!
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Congratulations, Fidel, you outlasted America.
Now that Castro’s gone, our President-elect has some thoughts:
Fidel Castro is dead!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2016
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At that point, somebody on Trump’s staff likely informed him that the Captain Obvious gig isn’t as good for his hotel business as the whole “president” con. So he came up with this:
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
America conducts foreign policy via Twitter now. Get used to it.
Thing is, we don’t have to listen to Donald Trump’s Hymen Roth impersonation. Yes, Trump can do great damage to U.S./Cuba relations by trying to undo the complicated regulatory thawing undertaken by President Obama. But remember, Obama has only had to jump through executive hoops because the Republican-controlled Congress spent the last four years refusing to take his phone calls.
The Cuban embargo remains in place. Only Congress can reverse it. From an editorial in the Boston Globe:
In due course, history will judge Castro’s legacy. In the meantime, there’s also grave danger in scaling back the progress made by the Obama administration in re-establishing relations with Cuba. Castro’s death will hopefully remove an obstacle for the Cuban American establishment in Florida that has largely been opposed to opening relations with Cuba. The incoming Trump administration must continue the process of establishing relations on all levels, including working with Congress to finally repeal the embargo.
The Cuban embargo has been good for two things: hurting the Cuban people, and getting Cubans in Miami to vote Republican.
The question about what to do next with Cuba is now squarely in Congress’s court. Enter Republican Jeff Flake:
Today there is talk that we should return to a “get tough” policy by once again by further restricting travel and commercial activity. The question that should be asked is this: Who are we getting tough with? Fidel Castro played U.S. policy like a fiddle for decades. Raul Castro, while he may lack the charisma or personality of his brother, is a pretty good fiddle player himself.
The Cuban government knows all too well how to respond to a U.S. policy of isolation, to the detriment of the Cuban people. Engagement — now that’s a get tough policy that gets tough with the right people. Let’s continue with the opening.
The Constitution does not invest sole authority in the executive branch. The media doesn’t have to act like it does. The Cuban embargo is an actual law: it was passed by Congress, and it can be repealed by Congress. Let’s try to remember that while Trump figures out who Raul is.
Congress should lift embargo on post-Castro Cuba [Boston Globe]
Opinion: Senator Flake on US-Cuba Policy After Castro [Prescott News]
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.