Trump registered his trademark in Cuba to build hotels in 2008
US President Donald Trump registered his trademark in Cuba in 2008 to build hotels, casinos and golf courses, local Miami press reported Tuesday identifying documents available online from a Cuban state office.
The president, who bases his election campaign in Florida on a harsh anti-socialist discourse, registered the "Trump" trademark in Cuba for dozens of businesses and services related to the real estate market, hotels, restaurants and sports and beauty events, the Miami Herald found.
A search on the website of the Cuban Industrial Property Office shows, under the "Trademarks" tab, the application for registration in the name of Donald J. Trump under the New York address of the Trump Organization.
The request was introduced in 2008 and approved in 2010. It expired in 2018, two years after Trump won the presidency.
According to the Herald, the real estate magnate did not violate the embargo that Washington imposes on Havana, but in 1999 he had assured in a speech before the Cuban-American National Foundation that he would not do business with Cuba while Castroism ruled.
Speaking of businesses that had been offered to him on the communist island, he said then: I rejected them arguing that I will go when Cuba is free.
Investing money in Cuba does not go to the Cuban people. It goes into Fidel Castro's pockets, he added, referring to the late Cuban leader.
The previous president, Barack Obama, had initiated a commercial and diplomatic rapprochement with Cuba that culminated in a visit to the island in 2016, something that was interpreted as a betrayal by anti-Castro Cubans in Florida.
Since taking office, Trump has hardened Washington's stance against the island, something that won him the unconditional support of the Cuban-American community, an important electoral group that can define the vote in Florida.
In response to the Herald report, the vice presidential candidate, Democrat Joe Biden, stated that it is clear that President Trump does not care about the freedom of the Cuban people, he only has an interest in himself, even if this implies do business with the Castros.
The notion that a Biden victory would lead the country down a socialist path is one of the main arguments of Trump's campaign to attract the vote of Hispanics in Florida.
A search on the website of the Cuban Industrial Property Office shows, under the "Trademarks" tab, the application for registration in the name of Donald J. Trump under the New York address of the Trump Organization.
The request was introduced in 2008 and approved in 2010. It expired in 2018, two years after Trump won the presidency.
According to the Herald, the real estate magnate did not violate the embargo that Washington imposes on Havana, but in 1999 he had assured in a speech before the Cuban-American National Foundation that he would not do business with Cuba while Castroism ruled.
Speaking of businesses that had been offered to him on the communist island, he said then: I rejected them arguing that I will go when Cuba is free.
Investing money in Cuba does not go to the Cuban people. It goes into Fidel Castro's pockets, he added, referring to the late Cuban leader.
The previous president, Barack Obama, had initiated a commercial and diplomatic rapprochement with Cuba that culminated in a visit to the island in 2016, something that was interpreted as a betrayal by anti-Castro Cubans in Florida.
Since taking office, Trump has hardened Washington's stance against the island, something that won him the unconditional support of the Cuban-American community, an important electoral group that can define the vote in Florida.
In response to the Herald report, the vice presidential candidate, Democrat Joe Biden, stated that it is clear that President Trump does not care about the freedom of the Cuban people, he only has an interest in himself, even if this implies do business with the Castros.
The notion that a Biden victory would lead the country down a socialist path is one of the main arguments of Trump's campaign to attract the vote of Hispanics in Florida.