Trump threatens to 'terminate' U.S. opening with Cuba

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday threatened to unravel President Barack Obama’s progress with Cuba unless the communist nation accedes to his terms.

“If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal,” Trump tweeted Monday morning.


It’s unclear, specifically, what type of “better deal” Trump is seeking.

Nevertheless, Trump transition communications director Jason Miller told reporters later Monday on a conference call that “Cuba is a very complex topic and the president-elect is aware of the nuances and complexities regarding the challenges the island and the Cuban people face.”

“And to be clear, the president-elect wants freedom in Cuba for the Cubans and a good deal for Americans where we are not played for fools,” he continued. “Our priorities are the release of political prisoners, the return of fugitives from American law and political and religious freedoms for all Cubans living in oppression.”

In December 2014, the president began thawing relations with Cuba with his announcement that the U.S. would work to normalize relations with Havana. But Trump aides had signaled Sunday that the president-elect could reverse the progress of the Obama administration’s diplomatic reset.

Incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus on Sunday warned that Trump was “absolutely” willing to undo Obama’s work, cautioning that Trump would need to see “movement in the right direction” from the Cuban regime to maintain such diplomatic relations.

“Repression, open markets, freedom of religion, political prisoners — these things need to change in order to have open and free relationships,” Priebus said on “Fox News Sunday.” “There’s going to have to be some movement from Cuba in order to have a relationship with the United States.”

Brent Griffiths contributed to this report.