Donald Trump: Fidel Castro is dead!

Washington (CNN)President-elect Donald Trump reacted Saturday to the death of controversial Cuban leader Fidel Castro in a four word tweet.

"Fidel Castro is dead!" Trump tweeted on the news of the 90-year-old's death.

The longtime revolutionary leader died Friday, presenting more potential opportunities for change in a country whose relations with the United States recently began to improve

Castro's death came just weeks after Trump, a frequent critic of the deal that lead to a reopening of diplomatic relations with Cuba, was elected president.

Trump had threatened to undo efforts by President Barack Obama to bring the US and Cuba closer together calling the recent agreement "weak."

Fidel Castro dies: What now for US-Cuba relations?

In October, Trump criticized the Obama administration's effort to normalize relations with Cuba as a "very weak agreement," though he said some sort of a deal is "fine."

Trump told Miami CBS journalist Jim Defede that he would do "whatever you have to do to get a strong agreement," even if that meant breaking off the recently-resumed diplomatic relations.

Trump also blasted the Cuba policy changes, an apparent shift from past statements in which he supported the reopening of diplomatic relations after more than 50 years, at a Miami rally in



September.

In March, the businessman expressed interest in opening a hotel in Cuba, telling CNN it was "OK to bring Cuba back into the fold."

The real estate developer said in October that he needed "to find out" if a Newsweek report that his associates violated the US-Cuban embargo in 1998 by going to Cuba to explore business opportunities is true. A Bloomberg report said additional Trump associates went to Cuba in 2012 and 2013 to entertain opening a golf resort.

"I don't know exactly where they were. I can tell you that Cuba wants to, you know, really negotiate with us. They've said, 'We want to negotiate.' They want to make some kind of a deal. I've said, I don't want to make any deals unless we know we have a deal with Cuba. I think it's appropriate," he told Defede.

"But you think they did, in fact, go to Cuba?" Defede asked.

"Well, know that Cuba wants us to go there. I'm not interested in going," Trump replied.

Defede countered, "No, I meant as emissaries -- did those individuals travel there to have those discussions?"

"I would have to find out," Trump said. "I know they had some meetings, but I would have to find out."

Despite some U.S.-Cuban relations being restored by Obama, the five-decades-old US-Cuban trade embargo bans US citizens from spending any money in Cuba. Only Congress can lift that embargo.