The situation in Cuba is devolving as the island’s corrupt, brutal and anti-American Communist regime continues to prioritize its own total control over the freedom, opportunity and basic wellbeing of the Cuban people.
The Cuban military-controlled conglomerate GAESA has persistently served as the main vector for regime elites to steal the island’s few resources, diverting them for repression, anti-American subversion and spying instead of schools, power plants, and basic necessities for the Cuban people. Today, I designated additional GAESA network entities associated with moving both its money and its physical assets, as well as entities responsible for exploiting Cuba’s mineral and metal reserves for ill-gotten profit.
Anyone providing services to these sanctioned actors is at risk of being sanctioned themselves. Foreign banks and other companies that provide services to these entities should freeze those activities immediately.
🇺🇸 🇮🇷 🇯🇵 THE LESSON OF VERSAILLES: How Trump is treating Iran like MacArthur treated Japan!
The lesson from history we cannot ignore right now with Iran:
After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany. It crushed their economy, stripped their dignity, and treated their leadership like criminals. What did that produce? Resentment, chaos, and Adolf Hitler.
We almost repeated that mistake in 1945.
But General Douglas MacArthur refused to go down that road with Japan.
MacArthur understood something the Wilson crowd never did: you don’t win the peace by destroying a defeated nation’s leadership if you can use it for stability instead.
Emperor Hirohito was the symbolic heart of Japan. Many wanted him tried as a war criminal and hanged. MacArthur said no.
He kept Hirohito on the throne as a figurehead, had him renounce divinity, and used the Emperor’s authority to push through sweeping reforms - new constitution, demilitarization, land reform, and real democratization.
Result? Japan didn’t descend into chaos or communism. They became one of America’s strongest allies and an economic powerhouse. MacArthur turned enemies into partners.
Fast forward to today.
There’s a loud crowd that says we must completely humiliate and destroy the current leadership in Iran. Topple the regime, no off-ramp, total humiliation.
That’s Versailles thinking.
And it’s dangerous.
The Iranian people are already suffering under their regime. The smarter play - the MacArthur play - is to create an off-ramp.
Give their leadership a path where they can deliver real prosperity and dignity to their own people in exchange for abandoning nuclear weapons, terrorism sponsorship, and regional aggression.
When a nation’s people start seeing tangible improvement in their lives, the appetite for endless jihad and confrontation drops dramatically.
Stability beats endless occupation. Prosperity beats resentment. Smart power beats performative toughness that creates bigger problems down the road.
America First doesn’t mean we’re weak. It means we’re wise.
We learned from Versailles. We learned from MacArthur’s success in Japan. Let’s apply those hard-earned lessons instead of repeating the same mistakes that birthed the last century’s nightmares.
Strength and strategy. Not just slogans.
The goal isn’t to own the libs or look tough on cable news. The goal is to secure America’s future with the least blood and treasure possible.
History already showed us the winning formula.
Now it’s time to use it.