Trump is putting the squeeze on Cuba
While everyone was distracted, Trump laid out a plan to add tariffs on goods from any country providing energy to Cuba
The federal government is using Venezuelan oil to put pressure on the Cuban government. Why? President Donald Trump is claiming that Cuba is being used as a place for transnational terrorist organizations to seek safe haven. The president claims that groups like Hezbollah and Hamas are among the groups using Cuba. There is no evidence of this, but, nonetheless, the United States government is using the unverified claim to threaten trade partners with the Caribbean nation.
President Donald Trump is putting the squeeze on Cuba
In an effort to continue to topple foreign governments, President Donald Trump took direct aim at Cuba. The president recently signed an executive order that opens up the possibility for new tariffs on goods from countries that give Cuba oil. According to “Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba,” the president plans to punish countries that trade oil with Cuba.
The executive order claims that the increased economic pressure is in the name of national security.
“The Government of Cuba has taken extraordinary actions that harm and threaten the United States,” reads the executive order. “The regime aligns itself with — and provides support for — numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States, including the Government of the Russian Federation (Russia), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Government of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah. For example, Cuba blatantly hosts dangerous adversaries of the United States, inviting them to base sophisticated military and intelligence capabilities in Cuba that directly threaten the national security of the United States. Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility, which tries to steal sensitive national security information of the United States.”
President Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, 2025. The summit was criticized for its insensitivity to national security by allowing a foreign adversary into the US and onto a military base. The summit took place at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Countries are responding to the threat of increased tariffs
Part of the US’s takeover of Venezuela included controlling the country’s oil supplies. There was an immediate stop to all oil being shipped to Cuba from Venezuela. It was a direct assault on Cuba, which is a nation reliant on allies for its energy needs.
Mexico is the island nation’s largest energy supplier. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has remained ambiguous on what Mexico was going to do in response to the threat of tariffs. According to the Associated Press, Mexico was at one point this year shipping 200,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba. However, around Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s trip in September 2025, shipments drastically fell.
The latest news from Washington could force Mexico to further slash oil shipments to Cuba. The results could endanger the lives of Cubans already living in precarious conditions. Last year, Cuba suffered a series of power failures across the island, with a nationwide blackout also happening in September 2025.
According to Reuters, President Trump is already claiming that Mexico will not send oil. Meanwhile, Reuters independently reports that Mexico is still reviewing what actions to take in response to the executive order.
President Trump is attempting a second regime change without finishing the first
The US government removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, 2026. The Venezuelan president’s arrest shocked the international community. Despite claiming to want to topple a dictator, the Trump administration has done little to push for democracy in Venezuela.
Instead, President Trump has endorsed Delcy Rodriguez, who was vice president to President Maduro, as the interim leader. As for María Corina Machado, President Trump doesn’t think she can lead the country despite having won the last election. She did, however, give him her Nobel Peace Prize medal.
He has not been shy about claiming that the goal in Cuba is regime change. Now, how, and if, he goes about it remains a mystery.
So Communist Cuba good, Russian dictator bad.
Many Cubans live in poverty with the electrical rolling blackouts, no water heaters, food and medical supply shortages, low wages, and high inflation.