President Donald Trump said the Cuban government is now negotiating directly with the United States as the island faces severe shortages of fuel, food, and money following the loss of Venezuelan oil support.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump said Saturday that the Cuban government has begun negotiating with the United States, describing the talks as a potential turning point for the communist-run island amid worsening economic conditions.
Speaking during his “Shield of the Americas” gathering of Latin American leaders in Miami on March 8, Trump said the Cuban leadership has entered discussions with his administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“As we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela, we’re also looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba,” Trump said during the event. “They have no money. They have no oil. They have a bad philosophy. They have a bad regime that’s been bad for a long time.”
Trump said Cuban officials are currently engaged in negotiations with himself, Rubio, and other U.S. officials.
“And I would think a deal would be made very easily with Cuba,” the president said.
The remarks come as the island faces mounting economic strain after Venezuela halted oil shipments following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela had long served as Cuba’s primary oil supplier, and the loss of those shipments has intensified fuel shortages across the country.
Trump has pushed for negotiations with Havana since earlier this year and has increased pressure on the Cuban government in recent months as its economic situation deteriorated.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez responded earlier to Trump’s statements in a post on X, declaring that Cuba remained prepared to defend itself.
“Those who blame the Revolution for the severe economic shortages we suffer should hold their tongues in shame,” Díaz-Canel wrote in the message.
By late February, Trump had also raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba by the United States while speaking to reporters at the White House.
“The Cuban government is talking with us,” Trump said on Feb. 27. “They’re in a big deal of trouble. We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba after many, many years.”
He also said that Rubio was engaged in high-level discussions with Cuban leadership.
“They have no money, they have no oil, they have no food, and it’s really right now a nation in deep trouble, and they want our help,” Trump said.
Cuba’s economic situation has worsened significantly over the past year and a half as fuel shortages have caused repeated nationwide blackouts and transportation disruptions. Shortages of food and medicine have also affected the island’s roughly 11 million residents.
The country has been governed under a communist system since Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959, and relations between Havana and Washington have remained strained for decades.
The current diplomatic developments come at a time when the United States is also engaged in military operations against Iran, leading some lawmakers to question whether Cuba could become another potential focus of U.S. foreign policy.
During a Jan. 28 hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii asked Rubio whether he would commit publicly that the United States would not pursue regime change in Cuba.
Rubio declined to make such a commitment.
“Oh, no,” Rubio said during the hearing. “I think we would like to see the regime there change. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make a change, but we would love to see a change.”
Rubio added that a change in Cuba’s government would benefit the United States and pointed to the provisions of the Helms–Burton Act of 1996, which requires a democratic transition in Cuba before the U.S. president can lift the longstanding economic embargo.
“It was codified in law, and it requires regime change in order for us to lift the embargo,” Rubio said.
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