President Donald Trump has a guiding principle for his foreign policy, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., tweeted Saturday — do the opposite of what President Barack Obama would have done.
On Friday, Trump rolled back some of Obama's 2014 policies toward Cuba, while announcing numerous new travel restrictions and rules against some commercial ties between the United States and its island neighbor.
Trump's new executive action, however, will not lift sanctions against Cuba until it released all political prisoners and respected the Cuban people's right to freedom of assembly and expression.
He also on Tuesday demanded legalization of all political parties in order to hold free and internationally supervised elections.
The policy also would restrict the flow of American dollars to the military, security and intelligence services that are central to the government led by President Raul Castro, with Trump commenting that "we do not want U.S. dollars being used to prop up a military monopoly that exploits and abuses the citizens of Cuba. We will not lift sanctions on the Cuban regime until all political prisoners are free."
The decision follows Trump's action pulling the United States away from the Paris climate change agreement, and after he signed a multi-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, both decisions that have led to complaints from both sides of the aisle.
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