Donald Trump’s tough talk on Castro shows big shift from Barack Obama

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump started to put his stamp on a more muscular foreign policy on Saturday with a toughly-worded statement following the death of Cuba's Fidel Castro.

The president-elect eschewed the diplomat-speak of President Barack Obama, who offered his condolences to the Castro family in an anodyne statement.

Instead, Trump tore into the newly-deceased dictator in perhaps the clearest example since this month's election of the two men's sharply different world views.


Trump said weeks before the November 8 president election that Obama has propped up Cuba economically and politically "in exchange for nothing", and said that if elected he wanted to cut a better deal both for the Cuban people and the US.

Trump's reaction started early Saturday with a seemingly celebratory tweet - "Fidel Castro is dead!" - to his 16 million Twitter followers.

A formal statement followed, blasting Castro. "Fidel Castro's legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights," Trump said.

Trump said his administration will "do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty".