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President Donald Trump has expanded US sanctions on Cuba and has again floated taking the island after the conflict with Iran ends.
Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, relations between the US and Cuba have been rocky since 1959, when Fidel Castro’s communist revolution toppled a government the US had backed. In response, the US slapped a trade embargo on Cuba in 1960, and it’s stayed in place almost without interruption ever since. Things have gotten dramatically worse after Trump issued an order earlier this year that declared a national emergency around Cuba, framing the Havana government as an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” and warned tariffs would hit any country sending oil to the island (since the blockade kicked in this January, just one Russian tanker has actually gotten through). The fuel shortage has gutted Cuba’s economy. Power outages are constant, knocking out electricity for hospitals, buses, and classrooms. The tourism sector, which used to be the country’s biggest moneymaker, has also cratered. Since the fall of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump has continued to warn that “Cuba is next.” US lawmakers in the Senate also recently declined to pass a resolution that would force Trump to seek congressional approval before taking military action against the island.
What’s going on now: Trump signed the new executive order Friday, expanding sanctions to target Cuban government officials, people accused of corruption or human rights abuses, and anyone operating in Cuba’s energy, defense, financial services, or security sectors. Foreign banks and companies that keep doing business with Havana are also in the crosshairs and could be locked out of US markets entirely.
The White House didn’t name specific individuals or entities being sanctioned but claimed (without offering evidence) that Cuba serves as a “safe haven for transnational terrorist groups” like Hezbollah.
Speaking in Florida later that day, Trump said he plans to “take over” Cuba “almost immediately” once the Iran war wraps up. He floated the idea of rolling up to the coast with a US aircraft carrier. “On the way back from Iran, we’ll have one of our big – maybe the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier – the biggest in the world, we’ll have that come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say, ‘Thank you very much. We give up.'”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez fired back on X, blasting the order as “unilateral coercive measures” and accusing the US of “collective punishment against the Cuban people.” He argued the move runs counter to the United Nations Charter. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel posted his own response, writing that “the blockade and its reinforcement cause so much harm because of the intimidating and arrogant behavior of the world’s greatest military power.”
The order dropped during Cuba’s May Day events. Massive demonstrations in Havana converged on the US embassy, rallying behind the slogan “Defend the Homeland.” Díaz-Canel walked at the front, joined by 95-year-old Raúl Castro, the former Cuban president and revolutionary figure who rarely shows up in public.
This all comes despite both governments having recently been in contact. American diplomats traveled to Havana in April for meetings, and Díaz-Canel said publicly back in March that the two sides were working through their differences.






