Fact Sheets

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Imposes Sanctions on Cuban Regime Officials Responsible for Repression and Threats to U.S. National Security and Foreign Policy

The White House

IMPOSING SANCTIONS ON THE CUBAN REGIME: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order imposing new sanctions on the Cuban regime, protecting U.S. national security.

  • The Order broadens the existing sanctions on Cuba to include new restrictions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
  • The Order imposes new sanctions on entities, persons, or affiliates that support the Cuban regime’s security apparatus, are complicit in government corruption or serious human rights violations, or are agents, officials, or material supporters of the Cuban government.
  • The Order also authorizes new sanctions on covered persons, entities, or financial institutions that have conducted or facilitated transactions with persons or entities sanctioned under the Order.

COUNTERING CUBA’S MALIGN INFLUENCE: The President is addressing the national security threats posed by the communist Cuban regime by taking decisive action to hold the Cuban regime, and those that perpetuate it, accountable for its support of hostile actors, terrorism, and regional instability that endanger American security and foreign policy.

  • The Cuban regime aligns itself with countries and malign actors hostile to the United States, going so far as to facilitate their military and intelligence operations. For example, Cuba hosts foreign adversary facilities focused on targeting and exploiting sensitive national security information from the United States.
  • Cuba maintains close ties to other major state sponsors of terrorism, including the Government of Iran, and provides safe haven for transnational terrorist groups, including Hezbollah.
  • The regime persecutes and tortures political opponents, denies its citizens free speech rights, and actively spreads communist ideology across the region while repressing its populace.
  • Cuba’s corrupt regime continues to drive migration towards the United States, with more than 850,000 migrants arriving in America between 2022 and the fall of 2024.
  • Cuba provides a permissive environment for hostile foreign intelligence, military, and terrorist operations less than 100 miles from the American homeland.
  • These actions constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy, requiring immediate response to protect American citizens and interests.

PUTTING AMERICA FIRST: President Trump has consistently confronted regimes that threaten U.S. security and interests, delivering where others have failed to hold adversaries accountable.

  • President Trump is continuing efforts from his first term to stand with the Cuban people and hold the regime accountable.
    • In his first term, President Trump implemented a robust policy toward Cuba, reversing the Obama Administration’s one-sided deal that eased restrictions without securing meaningful reforms for the Cuban people. Relying on decades of evidence, President Trump’s first Administration properly designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.
  • In June 2025, President Trump strengthened the United States’ policy pressure on Cuba through a National Secuirty Presidential Memorandum, ensuring that engagement between the United States and Cuba advances the interests of the United States and the Cuban people, including promoting human rights, fostering a private sector independent of government control, and enhancing national security.
  • In January 2026, President Trump signed an Executive Order declaring a national emergency and establishing a process to impose tariffs on goods from countries that sell or otherwise provide oil to Cuba, protecting U.S. national security and foreign policy from the Cuban regime’s malign actions and policies.
  • President Trump continues to demonstrate his commitment to directly addressing national security threats from abroad.
    • Operation Absolute Resolve captured Venezuelan dictator and indicted narcoterrorist Nicolas  Maduro and his wife to face American justice.
    • Operation Southern Spear eliminated 186 narcoterrorists in strikes against fentanyl-trafficking vessels, stemming the deadly flow of drugs into America.
    • In Operation Midnight Hammer, President Trump decisively eliminated Iran’s nuclear weapons capability via targeted military strikes, escalated sanctions, and intelligence operations.
    • Operation Epic Fury successfully completed all of its military objectives in less than six weeks. Iran no longer poses the nuclear and terror threat it did, and no longer has the nuclear ambitions it held before. Now, the U.S. naval blockade and Operation Economic Fury have dissipated Iran’s economy.

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