Trump administration

The Trump administration is the executive branch under Donald Trump's second term, inaugurated in January 2025. It directs military operations through Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon, Foreign Policy through Marco Rubio at State, and economic policy through Treasury. The administration launched the Iran campaign without a formal declaration of war or NATO consultation and lacks Republican votes for its $200 billion war supplemental. The Heritage Foundation endorsed the intra-party funding revolt.

The Trump administration launched the Iran campaign from 28 February 2026, authorised PDVSA oil sales to cap energy prices during the Hormuz closure, and has been running a concurrent congressional confrontation over its $200 billion war supplemental. Domestic election enforcement (the SAVE voter-roll system with a 17% error rate drawing three court injunctions) and the World Cup co-host role compound its institutional pressures.

The administration deployed the SAVE voter-registration verification system under a ballot executive order, launched a DOJ data campaign targeting 29 states, and implemented the DOGE-led federal spending cuts programme. The SAVE System was found to flag one in six voter records incorrectly, drawing three federal court injunctions. Its immigration enforcement prompted Democrats to seek ICE bans at World Cup venues.

The administration's Cuba policy escalated in three parallel tracks through May 2026. Executive Order 14404, signed 1 May and formally numbered that week, authorises personal SDN designations against named Cuban officials and their adult relatives, with Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera the first designee on 7 May under the [Cuba-EO] tag. Cuba General License 1 (7 May) aligns the new EO with the pre-existing Cuban Assets Control Regulations. On the diplomatic track, Secretary Marco Rubio's 45-minute audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Holy See on 9 May produced a US proposal to route humanitarian aid through the Catholic Church rather than GAESA. Three officials now run parallel Cuba tracks: Bessent (personal sanctions), Rubio (Vatican humanitarian), State Department (bilateral, 10 April Havana visit). The GAESA wind-down window expired on 5 June, triggering hotel exits and card-network withdrawals that marked the first major real-economy impact of EO 14404.