Trump Defies Demographics by Courting Cuba Hardliners in Florida
- Administration increased pressure on Cuba with new sanctions
- Biden has promised a return to Obama-era detente, cooperation
Cubans gather in Little Havana, in Miami, Florida, to watch the inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017.
Photographer: Leila Macor/AFP via Getty Images
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President Donald Trump’s clampdown on Cuba’s Communist government is part of an election-year strategy to keep Cuban-American voters in Florida in his column -- but it could backfire in the must-win state.
In recent weeks the administration has issued new sanctions and ordered Marriott International Inc. to stop operations there. Those actions are part of a policy that comes from the typical playbook for a Republican president facing re-election: make an appeal to influential Cuban-Americans in South Florida who have supported the GOP for decades over their shared disdain for the island’s leaders.