As world leaders bent over backwards to praise Cuban president Fidel Castro — a dictator so brutal that his own people braved the sea in makeshift rafts hoping to make landfall in Florida to escape his island prison — president-elect Donald Trump showed us all why millions of Americans cast votes the way they did on November 8th.
Upon hearing about Castro’s death, Trump posted a four word tweet that struck just the right tone. “Fidel Castro is dead!” he tweeted, using a joyful exclamation point.
Fidel Castro is dead!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2016
Trump’s initial sentiment was short and sweet, a breath of fresh air after eight years of listening to a pedantic lecturer-in-chief.
The president-elect followed his tweet with an extended statement posted on Facebook, unapologetically detailing the utter cruelty of the Castro regime.
“Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights,” stated Trump. He concluded his statement by offering a message of hope to the oppressed Cuban people.
On the heels of his refreshingly truthful statement about Castro, Trump shared his vision for US-Cuban relations, implying that President Obama’s efforts to lift the sanctions on Cuba have done little to alleviate the suffering of the Cuban people.
Keeping his options open, Trump suggested that he plans on renegotiating the Cuban “deal.” In true businessman fashion, the real estate mogul made a point of saying that he’s willing to walk away from Havana if Raul Castro and his corrupt regime fail to agree to a “better deal” for Cubans and the United States.
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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2016
Following the president-elect’s lead, Vice President-elect Gov. Mike Pence shared his own two-cents about his hope “for a free and democratic Cuba” in the wake of “tyrant” Castro’s death.
The tyrant #Castro is dead. New hope dawns. We will stand with the oppressed Cuban people for a free and democratic Cuba. Viva Cuba Libre!
— Mike Pence (@mike_pence) November 26, 2016
With a series of statements, Trump and his team sent a strong signal that the next four years will be the nothing like the last eight. The sitting president failed to even hint at the fact that Castro was a mass murdering thug who once asked the Russians to nuke America. To his credit, Trump was more presidential in one weekend than President Obama has been for his entire tenure. He showed more moral clarity than almost every world leader combined (looking at you leftist dictator-lover Prime Minister Justin Trudeau).