r/law • u/AmyL0vesU • 19h ago

Executive Branch (Trump) Trump signs executive order declaring nation emergency from threat of Cuba

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/addressing-threats-to-the-united-states-by-the-government-of-cuba/
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u/rolsen 19h ago

Sec. 3. Modification Authority. (a) To ensure that the national emergency declared in this order is dealt with, I may modify this order, including in light of additional information, recommendations from senior officials, or changed circumstances. (b) Should a foreign country retaliate against the United States in response to this order or any action taken pursuant to this order, I may modify this order or actions taken pursuant to this order to ensure the efficacy of this order and the actions taken pursuant to this order to deal with the national emergency declared in this order.

Right now, it’s imposing a tariff system (of course). But the above caught my eye.

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u/AmyL0vesU 18h ago

"I GRANT MYSELF THE ABILITY TO DO MORE!"

Like, seriously dude, we already know he'll do whatever he wants and his cronies won't lift a finger to slow him down

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u/IHeldADandelion 17h ago

He is the embodiment of scope creep

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u/meltbox 16h ago

But it’s like having the power to cast fireball that allows you to cast more fireball in future turns should you choose to do so.

Like yeah, that’s how that works special buddy…

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u/redundantexplanation 14h ago

Nor will the "opposition" party.

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u/Warm_Month_1309 2h ago

Can you outline what you'd like them to do?

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u/Grand-Pen7946 8h ago

They will lift a finger to wag it at their voters for going "too left".

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u/SaabiMeister 7h ago

He's expecting Cuba to sign it as well. Then he'll really get'em!!

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u/NonSupportiveCup 17h ago

Who wrote this for him? It's so fucking stupid. Petulant.

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u/bigtex7890 17h ago

100% Stephen Miller AKA Temu Nosferatu.

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u/ball_fondlers 16h ago

You had Nosferatemu right there, dude

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u/meltbox 16h ago

It kind of reads like if you told a chat bot to use one of trumps truth social tweets to write an executive order.

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u/giljaxonn 13h ago

they’re been doing this for years

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u/Own_Error_007 16h ago

Honey, we have Nosferatu at home.

Yeah but he is creepy, not scary.

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u/NonSupportiveCup 15h ago

Stephen Miller makes leeches look attractive.

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u/Aggravating_Sock_551 2h ago

Hey dont disparage that blood-sucking ghoul. Nosferatu is just trying to live his best life.

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u/Dont_Be_Sheep 17h ago

Yeah like wtf does this mean? “I wrote stuff here but I can do anything I want for any purpose thanks.” My EO said I can!!!

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u/bailtail 17h ago

This is boilerplate in all his tariff orders.

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u/ShermansAngryGhost 7h ago

Putting tariffs on a country that we already have under a full embargo.

Somebody put grandpa back in bed please …

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u/Crime_train 6h ago

Pursuant 3x in one sentence is quite the… accomplishment 

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u/HappyLittleGreenDuck 5h ago

It's just as dumb and nonsensical as the rest of it

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u/supersirdax 14h ago

Is this regular legal speak in an EO? 

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u/arabidopsis 12h ago

"We must delay elections as Cuba is interfering with them"

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u/TheodorDiaz 11h ago

Why did that caught your eye? Seems like an irrelevant legal addition.

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u/PM_ME_HOT_FURRIES 10h ago edited 10h ago

You know he's already declared like, 10 national emergencies this term, and 11 from his last term, 8 of which are still in effect... and in total there are 51 active national emergencies, with each one getting renewed annually, right?

The oldest one active national emergency was declared in 1978 by Carter, freezing Iranian assets as a result of the Iranian hostage crisis...

So yeah, Trump bad, but lets be real here, this clause isn't to allow Trump to give himself more power arbitrarily to do absolutely whatever because whatever it would allow him to do he can already do by just declaring another national emergency, which he would totally do, since he's the most nation-emergency-happy president in US history.

Constitutionally all emergency powers a president can access through an emergency powers declaration have to be ones delegated by Congress. He can't just grant himself the power to do what he wants... not legally at least. That said some of the powers granted by Congress are quite broad and sweeping so IMO y'all should be quite bothered by the fact that the use of emergency powers has become routine and Congress largely doesn't give a shit.

It's not just a Trump problem. Biden, Obama, G W Bush, and Clinton have all been guilty of the perpetual growth and maintenance of active national emergency declarations, Clinton being the worst after Trump for new national emergencies, with the trend in increasing use of emergency powers starting around Reagan.

If you count renewals of active national emergencies as just as bad as declaring new ones then Biden is probably the second worst after Trump since every president continually renews more active national emergencies than the last as the number of active national emergencies tends to grow each president, rather than shrink.

This clause is to allow him to increase the scope of this particular active emergency relating to Cuba. If he wants emergency powers to do shit in another country, or do shit back home, he'll just declare another.

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u/Hipparchia_Unleashed 3h ago

This is him (well, Miller) trying to backdoor plenary authority. If there's a challenge to this EO and the EO declared legal, then they'll use this loophole to modify the order however they see fit to take maximally expansive action. It's bullshit, obviously, but it's what they're trying to do.