WASHINGTON — President Trump has approved a move intended to further choke off foreign investment in Cuba by lifting longstanding limits on American citizens seeking to sue over property confiscated by the Havana government going back to Fidel Castro’s revolution six decades ago, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.

The decision, a sharp departure from the policy of the last three presidents, could open the floodgates to thousands of lawsuits against foreign companies and individuals accused of “trafficking” in seized property. By doing so, Mr. Trump hopes to raise the pressure on Cuba, but risks another rupture with American allies in Europe and Canada that scrambled in vain in recent days to head off the change.

The action will be announced by the State Department on Wednesday and discussed by the president’s national security adviser, John R. Bolton, in a speech in Miami marking the 58th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs operation that failed to topple the Castro government during the early days of John F. Kennedy’s administration. Mr. Trump is trying to force Havana to back off its support for Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, whom administration officials said Cuba had propped up with more than 20,000 troops.

In his decision to lift the limits, Mr. Trump brushed aside vigorous protests by European leaders who brought their objections to Washington in recent weeks. Spain’s foreign minister met with Mr. Bolton, and other European officials pressed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, arguing that such a move would harm their businesses as well as the Cuban people.