The U.S. Congress is unwilling to constrain Trump in his offensive against Cuba. With 51 votes against and 47 in favor, the Senate on Tuesday, April 28, rejected a resolution under the War Powers Act that would have required the President to obtain congressional approval to continue the naval blockade around Cuba and to launch any attack against the island.
The vote largely followed party lines. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to vote against the measure, while Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky were the only members of their party to support it.
This grants Trump’s war machine the power to attack the island. The recent armed conflict in Iran—where U.S. forces failed to achieve their expected objectives—has left the Trump administration with a single remaining option to distract public opinion: an attack on Cuba. Such a move could yield a major media spectacle, albeit at a very high cost. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has emphatically stated that Cuba will defend itself with every means at its disposal, warning that the outcome would mirror the one the U.S. experienced in 1962 during the Bay of Pigs invasion.
The Bay of Pigs invasion (also known as *Playa Girón*) was a failed military operation launched in April 1961, in which approximately 1,500 Cuban exiles—trained and funded by the CIA—attempted to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. The mission ended in total defeat for the invaders in less than 72 hours, thereby consolidating the power of the Cuban Revolution and pushing the island toward a closer alliance with the Soviet Union.
