After watching President Trump in action over the early months of his presidency, many lawmakers and lobbyists have seen his lack of an agenda and policy as an opportunity to try and influence the President to better guide his hand towards their own agendas. Politico reported that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) had been one of these lawmakers who met with President Trump in the Oval Office in early May to drive his crackdown on Cuba.
According to their report titled "Inside Marco Rubio's campaign top shape Trump's Cuba crackdown," eight officials who were involved in drafting President Trump's policy towards Cuba to feel his agenda achieved "escape velocity" thanks to Rubio.
The presidency that targets Obama policies
The Trump administration has been Gung-Ho about rolling back every single one of former President Obama's policies to the joy of Republicans who obstructed the former commander-in-chief through both of his terms. As a Cuban-American, Sen.
Rubio was very vocal about Obama normalizing relations with Cuba and went as far as to block the President's pick for ambassadors who were part of that agenda. Rubio's point was that the Cuba regime needed to be overthrown before the U.S. even offered them anything saying that they had not paid the price for their treatment of Cubans. When Cuba's former President Fidel Castro died, the Senator wasted no time in calling him an "evil, murderous dictator."
Rubio warns about U.S.-Cuba relations bureaucracy
In Rubio's meeting with the President, he warned Trump that Washington bureaucrats, the Castro government and outside businesses were not going to let him try and a crackdown on trade and travel between both countries.
He also predicted that his crackdown would be "studied to death by government analysts," there would also be leaks and "excuses" by bureaucrats. It was at this point that Rubio made the suggestion that the President would have to "go it alone."
Again, what's been summed up about Trump's presidency is that he has generally gone it alone when making unpopular decisions, which was clear with his budget proposal to his travel ban which is stalled in Congress and the courts.
Rubio specifically told him that the State Department and the Treasury would not be interested in changing President Obama's policy and that the President would have to tell everyone what to do in this case.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart was apparently present during the meeting who reportedly nodded in agreement. In the mentioned budget proposal, Trump revealed that he wanted to financially weaken the State Department which as Blasting News opined, he had already done by putting in Rex Tillerson in as Secretary of State who practices the complete opposite of what the State Department is supposed to do. On Friday, Trump's speech in Miami reveals his new policy of the administration's crackdown on U.S.-Cuba relations.
