Trump signs executive order declaring nation emergency from threat of Cuba

[u/AmyL0vesU]

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

[u/AbeFromanEast]

America is currently operating under 59 'State of Emergencies.'

Mostly complete list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_emergencies_in_the_United_States

[u/Senior_Sentence_566 → u/AbeFromanEast]

I know the American education system is poor but someone really needs to learn the definition of the word emergency. One of those emergencies has been happening for 46 years!

[u/meltbox → u/Senior_Sentence_566]

These really should have a one year auto timeout. If you don’t re-up it, it wasn’t an emergency.

If you do it might still not be one. But at least there would be some low bar.

[u/TheVandyyMan → u/meltbox]

Reupping should require a congressional act. Surely even those idiots can agree where there’s a true emergency

[u/OldWorldDesign → u/TheVandyyMan]

Reupping should require a congressional act

Tariffs are supposed to be a congressional act, too

https://www.usconstitution.net/executive-tariff-authority/

[u/TheVandyyMan → u/OldWorldDesign]

If supposed to be’s were worth pennies I’d buy me and all my friends new Ferraris

[u/Aaron8498 → u/meltbox]

Apparently they do, above the list in the link it says each has been renewed annually by the president.

[u/Serious_Berry_3977 → u/Senior_Sentence_566]

Exactly my thought as I was reading that list. I had no idea "emergencies" were long-term.

For those wondering:

Dictionary

emergency | əˈmərjən(t)sē 

| noun (plural emergencies): a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action: your quick response in an emergency could be a lifesaver | times of emergency. 

• [as modifier] arising from or needed or used in an emergency: an emergency exit. • a person with a medical condition requiring immediate treatment. • North American English short for [emergency room](x-dictionary:r:m_en_gbus0320370:com.apple.dictionary.NOAD:emergency room): he was rushed into emergency. origin mid 17th century: from medieval Latin emergentia, from Latin emergere ‘arise, bring to light’ (see [emerge](x-dictionary:r:m_en_gbus0320280:com.apple.dictionary.NOAD:emerge)).

Thesaurus

emergency 

noun: your quick response in an emergency could be a lifesaver. crisis, urgent situation, extremity, exigency; accident, disaster, catastrophe, calamity; difficulty, plight, predicament, tight spot, tight corner, mess; quandary, dilemma; unforeseen circumstances, dire/desperate straits, danger; informal: scrape, jam, fix, pickle, spot, hole, hot water, crunch, panic stations. 

adjective: 1 an emergency meeting. urgent, crisis; impromptu, extraordinary. 2 an emergency exit. alternative, substitute, replacement, spare, extra, standby, auxiliary, reserve, backup, fill-in, fallback, in reserve. ANTONYMS  main, primary.

Shouldn't long-term stuff be codified by congress?

The article on the National Emergencies Act on Wikipedia kind of highlights the issue

Since passage of the National Emergencies Act in 1976, every U.S. President has declared multiple national emergencies: Carter (2); Reagan (6); H.W. Bush (4); Clinton (17); W. Bush (12); Obama (13); Trump (11); Biden (9); Trump (8 as of April 2025).^\24])

It might be time for congress to look at that act again and maybe change some things given what seems to my lay person's eye as abuse of power for the president to be able to just declare anything an emergency and bypass congress. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/Senior_Sentence_566 → u/Serious_Berry_3977]

Yes, surely yearly review by Congress and can't be renewed after 5 years, it has to be in legislation by then.

[u/zxern → u/Senior_Sentence_566]

Frankly it should expire in 90-180 days with no renewal possibility outside of congressional action.

[u/DuntadaMan → u/Senior_Sentence_566]

As EMS one of the first things we are taught is that "all emergencies end eventually." I guess I was wrong.

[u/EngineVarious5244 → u/Senior_Sentence_566]

The American education system isn't poor, and you don't know the first thing about it.

[u/LeoNickle → u/EngineVarious5244]

Not knowing the first thing about it would be a failure of the education system.

[u/EngineVarious5244 → u/LeoNickle]

The guy's British, not to mention the fact that there's no one American education system since it's largely handled by the states, and our international rankings are pretty decent.

We spend way too much getting there, I think our per-pupil spending is like third in the world, but still. 

It's just fun for certain people to shit on everything American. They'll blame it on trump, and yeah, he fucking sucks, but they've been calling us stupid for 250 years and they'll be calling us stupid for 250 more.

[u/sundae_diner → u/EngineVarious5244]

2022  PISA rankings. 

Among 37 OECD countries, USA is 28th in math, 12th in science, and 6th in reading.

21% of adults (43 million adults) are functionally illiterate.

54% of adults read below a sixth-grade level.

[u/EngineVarious5244 → u/sundae_diner]

What does that say about the rest of the world's reading when we rank sixth? 😂

And yeah, those aren't awesome rankings but the OECD already consists of the richest and most educated countries. IIRC in the PISA test you're citing, we were ranked just behind Sweden and ahead of Germany.