Governor Rick Scott channels Trump to threaten Florida ports over Cuba ties
Source: The Guardian
Governor Rick Scott channels Trump to threaten Florida ports over Cuba ties
Scott used Twitter to issue a threat to cut funding to any of the
states ports working with the Caribbean country in a sign of
worsening US-Havana relations
Richard Luscombe in Miami
Friday 3 February 2017 11.30 GMT
Governor Rick Scott of Florida, appears to be following Donald Trumps example of dictating policy by Twitter, with potentially far-reaching impacts for the future of US-Cuba relations.
In three simple tweets, Scott threatened to choke state funding from any Florida port that worked with Cuba. Almost immediately, two of them, Port Everglades and the Port of Palm Beach, cancelled the signing of memorandums of understanding with visiting Cuban trade officials.
Just as Trump has converted his own social media thoughts into hard policy by way of executive order, Scott this week followed up the tweets in his proposed formal budget to state lawmakers. One clause of the 362-page document states there should be no state money for any Florida port where infrastructure improvements would result in the expansion of trade with the Cuban dictatorship because of their continued human rights abuses.
The Florida legislature will debate the budget, which includes a $177m allocation for port upgrades, next month.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/03/governor-rick-scott-florida-ports-cuba-ties-trump