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Revisiting America’s Cuba Policy in Trump 2.0

May 7, 2025
Revisiting America’s Cuba Policy in Trump 2.0
Revisiting America’s Cuba Policy in Trump 2.0

Revisiting America’s Cuba Policy in Trump 2.0

May 7, 2025
Michael Bustamante

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In 2019, Michael Bustamante of the University of Miami was critical of the first Trump administration’s maximalist approach toward Cuba. Six years on, as successive presidential administrations have not significantly altered America’s approach toward Cuba and a second Trump administration has taken power, Bustamante reassesses his argument. Image: Cuban state mediaYou wrote your 2019 article, “Chronicle of a Failure Foretold: Trump Turns the Screws on Cuba,” shortly after Miguel Díaz-Canel became Cuba’s head of state during heightened U.S.-Cuban tensions. Looking back, how accurate was your assessment that the Trump administration’s increased economic pressure would empower those within Cuba “most averse to

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