Newly sworn-in President Donald Trump on Monday rescinded the Biden administration's last-minute decision to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, the White House said.

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump reinstated Cuba as a federally recognized state sponsor of terrorism, reversing an executive order by his White House predecessor to lift the designation from the island nation. The move came amid a flurry of actions Trump took Monday after being sworn in as the 47th United States President.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump reinstated Cuba 's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, reversing an executive order issued by President Joe Biden just last week. Biden had announced plans to lift the designation as part of a Vatican-brokered deal to free political prisoners in Cuba.

President Trump repealed the Biden administration’s decision it made just six days ago to take Cuba off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, part of a deal with the Catholic Church that led Havana to agree to free 553 political prisoners.

Evangelical Protestant pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo is among hundreds of prisoners, including several religious leaders, Cuba released last week after the U.S. removed the

The move was part of a sweeping executive order signed by Trump on Monday night that rescinds 78 executive actions taken by Biden over the course of his presidency.

On January 14, 2025 the Biden administration removed Cuba from the State Department's list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. That leaves only three countries on the list: Iran, North Korea and Syria. With a major regime transition underway in Syria following the abrupt resignation of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024,