Trump administration

The administration ran its Cuba pressure campaign on parallel tracks through 2026. On 18 April it extended Russian oil cover to Cuba for a second consecutive 30-day window, protecting a Sovcomflot tanker from penalties even as it threatened military escalation; a week later, on 25 April, Senate Democrats forced a war-powers vote over that same threat while Cuba's Supreme Popular Court closed the last early-release PATH for dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

On 5 June, OFAC's wind-down Deadline for GAESA, Cuba's military-run conglomerate, expired, triggering hotel exits and card-network withdrawals. By 13 July, a fresh ten-entity wave under Executive Order 14404 reached the Ministry of Tourism for the first time, the largest single-day designation batch since May and a sign the campaign keeps widening its target list rather than settling.

The administration ran its Iran air campaign, launched 28 February 2026, without a congressional declaration of war, betting that repeated Senate defeats of War Powers Resolution challenges would hold. The Senate's sixth such vote failed 47-50 on 30 April, with Senator Collins flipping her position, and the WPR's 30-day wind-down from the original 60-day Deadline expired on 1 June, leaving operations without clear statutory cover unless Congress passed a fresh authorisation.

By 12 May the Pentagon was reportedly weighing renaming any resumed operation 'Sledgehammer' on the theory a new name would reset the WPR clock, an argument independent legal scholars judged unlikely to survive challenge. The pattern across the war has been consistent: avoid signed instruments, avoid a formal declaration, and rely on Congress's inability to muster a veto-proof majority against it.

As co-host of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the administration ran its standard immigration and border enforcement apparatus in parallel with the tournament, producing repeated friction with accredited teams and fans. On 8 June, Customs and Border Protection held Iraq striker Aymen Hussein for around seven hours at Chicago O'Hare, despite Iraq not having qualified for the tournament, and separately barred an Iraqi team photographer.

The same day, LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said federal officers assisting security at SoFi Stadium would not run civil immigration arrests inside the venue, an assurance that stopped short of the written moratorium a hospitality workers' union had demanded for roughly 2,000 stadium staff and covered the venue perimeter only, leaving transport routes outside unaddressed.