WASHINGTON – President Donald J. Trump on Thursday night signed an executive order declaring a national emergency tied to Cuba and creating a process to impose additional tariffs on goods imported from countries that sell or otherwise provide oil to the island, framing the move as necessary to protect U.S. national security and foreign policy from what the order describes as the Cuban regime’s malign actions.
The order establishes a new tariff system that allows the United States to levy additional duties on imports from any country that “directly or indirectly” provides oil to Cuba. It also authorizes the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Commerce to take “all necessary actions” to implement the system, including issuing rules and guidance.
The president may modify the order if Cuba or affected countries take what the order describes as significant steps to address the threat or align with U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives.
The White House cast the action as part of a broader effort to confront “the depredations of the communist Cuban regime,” accusing Havana of supporting hostile actors, terrorism, and regional instability.
Among the claims cited in the order: that Cuba aligns itself with hostile countries and malign actors and hosts foreign military and intelligence capabilities including, the order says, Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility aimed at stealing sensitive U.S. national security information.
The order also states that Cuba provides safe haven for transnational terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas and supports adversaries in the Western Hemisphere in ways that undermine U.S. sanctions and regional stability. It further alleges the regime persecutes and tortures political opponents, denies free speech and press, profits corruptly from the Cuban people’s misery, and spreads communist ideology across the region.
Those actions, the order says, constitute an “unusual and extraordinary threat” requiring an immediate response to protect American citizens and interests.
Trump’s latest move is framed as a continuation of his first-term Cuba approach, which the White House says reversed the Obama administration’s easing of restrictions without securing meaningful reforms for the Cuban people.
The order also points to steps taken in June 2025, when Trump implemented partial travel restrictions on Cuban nationals, citing Cuba’s status as a state sponsor of terrorism, its failure to cooperate or share sufficient law enforcement information with the United States, its historical refusal to accept back removable nationals, and high visa overstay rates. It also notes that Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum in June 2025 aimed at strengthening U.S. policy toward Cuba.
The White House argued this is part of a wider posture of holding adversaries and state sponsors of terrorism to account, pointing to other recent actions it says Trump has ordered against hostile regimes, including strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and operations targeting Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.
