Trump teases intervention in Cuba amid war in Iran
By: Sean Noone
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Trump teases intervention in Cuba amid war in Iran
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel waves Venezuelan and Cuban national flags during a rally in Havana, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in solidarity after the U.S. captured President Nicolas Maduro and flew him out of Venezuela. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
( NewsNation ) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he wants to finish the war in Iran first, “but that will be just a question of time before you and a lot of unbelievable people are going to be going back to Cuba.”
America’s pressure campaign on Cuba is pushing the country to the breaking point, with President Trump and Republicans in Congress predicting the government’s imminent fall.
A major blackout across the western half of Cuba on Wednesday underscored the energy crisis exacerbated by Trump’s fuel blockade. Some analysts warn the Cuban government will exhaust all fuel reserves by mid to late March, bringing the island to a complete standstill.
State media reported that nearly 660,000 customers in Havana, or 77%, had power, as well as 43 hospitals and 10 water supply stations. However, officials warned of low power generation and said some circuits that crews had reconnected were kicked offline again.
Key oil shipments from Venezuela were halted after the United States attacked the South American country in early January. Then, later that month, Trump warned that he would impose tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba.
Trump has tasked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to lead talks with Cuban officials and has floated a “friendly” takeover of the island.
It remains unclear what Trump meant by a “friendly” takeover.
“They want to make a deal so badly, you have no idea,” Trump said at the White House on Thursday, suggesting that major changes will be happening in a few weeks.
Rubio is reportedly holding talks with Raúl Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president and de facto leader of the country. Raúl Castro’s control over the Cuban military is viewed as the main power base on the island.
While there appears to be little appetite among Democrats for intervention in Cuba, there is plenty on the Republican side of the aisle.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has renewed his call for a complete overhaul in Cuba in the aftermath of Trump’s major military operation against Iran.
“Cuba’s next, they’re gonna fall, this communist dictatorship in Cuba, their days are numbered,” Graham said Sunday on Fox News.
U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., who was born in Cuba, posted Thursday on social media that the regime in Cuba “MUST BE DESTROYED & RELEGATED TO THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY!”
The U.S. pressure campaign against Cuba also ties into the West’s long-held anti-communist views, with many Republicans and Democrats in Washington hoping to reduce Russian and Chinese global influence in the process.
In 2001, Cuba was the only country in the region doing more business with China than with the U.S., according to Francisco Urdinez, an associate professor at the Political Science Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile who tracked the movement of Chinese companies and money in his 2026 book “Economic Displacement: China and the End of US Primacy in Latin America.”
But 20 years later, all South American countries — except Paraguay and Colombia — were trading more with China than with the U.S., according to his research.
Between 2014 and 2023, China provided loans and grants to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean worth roughly $153 billion — the largest source of official sector financing for the region — compared with approximately $50.7 billion from the U.S., according to AidData, a research lab at William & Mary, a university in Virginia.
As for Russia, top officials hosted the Cuban foreign minister for talks in Moscow in late February and spoke out in support of the island nation amid the U.S. oil embargo.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged the U.S. to refrain from blockading Cuba, which has struggled to import oil for its power plants and refineries.
Lavrov promised that Moscow will “continue supporting Cuba and its people in protecting the country’s sovereignty and security.”
Cuba’s fuel shortages have already forced Russian tourist companies to halt the sales of package tours to the island after the Cuban government said that it will not provide fuel to planes that land on the island.
The Associated Press and NewsNation affiliate The Hill contributed to this report.
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What has Cuba done to America for Trump to strangle to death the whole innocent population, men, women and children, of such a small nation? It makes me think of the last line of Buffy St. Marie's song The Universal Soldier: "This is not the way we put an end to war." The worst monster in the world you can think of would not do that.
It's beyond my comprehension how ANYONE could be proud to have such a monster as their leader. I wonder what Ernest Hemingway would have thought.
Addressing the Cuba situation is no longer optional. Cuba is beginning to stink up the region like roadkill. There is a danger that Cuba becomes another Jamaica or Haiti. So, some sort of intervention is becoming necessary.
If the Trump administration treats Cuba the way Puerto Rico has been treated then this won't end well.