Trump Reaffirms “Maximum Pressure” Cuba Policy
Daniel Montero & Reed Lindsay
July 1, 2025
Donald Trump issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) Monday restating his June 2017 Cuba policy directives, which laid the groundwork for his “maximum pressure” policy toward the island during his first term.
The 2017 memorandum reversed Barack Obama’s policy of engagement, and was the starting point for dozens of subsequent measures that smashed Cuba’s economy.
Joe Biden kept the core of those Trump sanctions in place until he finally revoked the memorandum on January 14. But Trump restored the memo on his first day in office.
As such, apart from the last six days of Biden's presidency, Trump's June 2017 memo has effectively been in place for the last eight years.
Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez described the memo as “a clear example of the U.S.’s aggressive conduct,” which aims at “strengthening the economic siege and causing scarcity for the Cuban people.”
Watch our documentary series The War on Cuba to see what Trump’s first term and the Biden presidency meant for Cuba.
More of the same, with one addition
The new memo carries the same name as the one published in 2017 (NSPM-5). And its language is almost identical. But there's one notable exception.
The 2017 memo ordered the secretary of state to identify and publish a list of Cuban state entities with which direct financial transactions would be off-limits to U.S. nationals and companies. The new memo calls for a list of Cuban state entities with which direct and indirect financial transactions would be banned.
It is not clear whether the list would be expanded. Nor is it clear what the impact of adding indirect transactions would be.
Like the old memo, the new one states that U.S. policy is to “support the economic embargo of Cuba,” deprive the Cuban government of funds, enforce a ban on U.S. tourism to Cuba and sanction specific government entities.
“It's more of the same,” William LeoGrande, a specialist in US. foreign policy toward Latin America and professor of government at American University, told Belly of the Beast. “The new memo seems like nothing more than a continuation of the policy Trump adopted at the start of his first term."
The document itself does not impose new sanctions on Cuba. But like the Cuba memo in Trump’s first term, it seems likely to pave the way for harsher measures to come.
Secondary sanctions in the pipeline?
Citing “a source with knowledge of the new regulations," the Miami Herald has reported that the new memo will open the door to “secondary sanctions” targeting foreign companies that do business in Cuba.
However, the memo does not explicitly target foreign companies nor is it clear how it would allow for secondary sanctions.
According to LeoGrande, “indirect” sanctions are not the same as “secondary” sanctions.
“Secondary sanctions would target foreign companies that have no U.S. presence and therefore are not covered by current sanctions,” said LeoGrande. “Nothing in the memo precludes the administration from doing that in the future, but this memo itself does not have that broad a reach.”
Regardless of the new memo, Trump could issue an executive order sanctioning companies from third countries. Former U.S. Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone, until recently Rubio’s right-hand man on Cuba policy, indicated earlier this year that “modernized sanctions” aimed at third parties were in the pipeline.
More sanctions on foreign companies doing business in Cuba would be another blow to the island's moribund economy. They could also create blowback for the U.S., since several of Cuba’s main economic partners are U.S. allies.
With Cuban-American hardliner Marco Rubio running foreign policy, the Trump administration's doubling down on its “maximum pressure” strategy comes as no surprise.
Rubio was a driving force behind the Cold War-era approach toward Cuba during Trump’s first term. Less than two weeks after becoming secretary of state he confirmed the administration would embrace “a tough U.S.-Cuba policy.”
In recent months Rubio has been targeting the island’s sources of foreign revenue, including a campaign to pressure third countries to cut ties with Cuba’s medical collaboration missions.