Trump’s Cuban pappy-show

Reeling from what has thus far been a failed legislative agenda, the darkening cloud over his tenure cast by multiple probes into his campaign ties to Russia, his disastrous dismissal of FBI director James Comey and subsequent allegations that he attempted to obstruct justice, US President Donald Trump has taken aim at a foreign adversary he hopes to conquer - Cuba.

But he’s barking up the wrong tree. And his gambit is a dangerous cocktail that could undermine progress in the region. In an act of pure cynicism, Trump last week cited the need to protect the human rights of the Cuban people as he announced he would roll back the deal with Cuba, brokered - with the aid of Pope Francis - by his predecessor Barack Obama.

“I am cancelling the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba,” said Trump in Miami.

Casting the Obama administration as people who looked the other way on the Castro regime’s human rights violations, Trump said that he, as President, will “expose the crimes of the Castro regime.” “They made a deal with a government that spread violence and instability in the region and nothing they got, think about it, nothing they got, they fought for everything and we just didn’t fight hard enough, but now, those days are over,” Trump said.

“We now hold the cards. The previous administration’s easing of restrictions of travel and trade does not help the Cuban people.

They only enrich the Cuban regime.” Trump listed some of the Castro regime’s anti-United States actions, ranging back to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and added, “We will never, ever be blind to it. We know what is going on and we remember what happened.” This from the US president who has praised authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, and the Saudi Royal family; who has issued racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic executive orders; who conducted a brazen and gratuitous attack on the first non-white mayor of London Sadiq Khan; who has sought to circumvent the functioning of the independent judiciary; who picked a homophobic vice president and hurled misogynistic comments during his campaign and beyond; who has repeatedly attacked the free press; and who has dismissed his own people’s right to protest against him.

Though Trump pledges to no longer turn a blind eye to violations in Cuba - there are many, serious violations that no country should condone - he ignores reports of brazen efforts by Russian operatives to attack the most vital thing necessary for his own people’s human rights: its democratic process.

This has implications for the region as it undermines America’s standing. Many will conclude the latest posturing to be nothing more than the continuation of a spiteful campaign to reverse all the policies of Obama. But such fickleness undermines Trump’s own ability to make deals with leaders in the region. For if the word of one US president cannot be taken as good in the long term, who would trust any president’s word in future? As with his misguided Mexican border wall, Trump seeks to divide and isolate. He has good reason to be concerned with human rights violations in Cuba, but he has more reason to be cognizant of the fact that the isolationist approach has not worked for six decades.

Trump makes a mockery of human rights discourse by holding it up as the justification for his own selfish machinations.

He also endangers the region by ignoring the key role Cuba and its traditional ally Caricom will have to play in the situation with Venezuela which has been assessed as a threat to the stability of the hemisphere. This is an epic foreign policy blunder. What a misguided pappy show!