The US president has repeatedly asserted that Cuba is ready to negotiate as it faces a spiraling energy and economic crisis.
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Published March 10, 2026
US President Donald Trump has indicated that his administration is still pursuing the overthrow of Cuba’s government, even as the US and Israel’s war against Iran enters its second week.
President Trump said on Monday that the U.S. State Department remains focused on Cuba and that the White House’s plans may or may not include a “friendly occupation” of the island, according to Reuters.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is “dealing with” Cuba, the president told reporters in Florida.
“He’s dealing with (it), but it may or may not be a friendly takeover. It doesn’t really matter because they’re actually… up in smoke, as they say. They don’t have the energy, they don’t have the money,” Trump said.
“Either they will come to an agreement, or we will just as easily come to an agreement,” he said.
Cuba has been facing an energy crisis since January, when U.S. forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and halted fuel exports from Caracas to Havana, cutting Cuba, one of its few allies, from a key source of oil for the Cuban economy.
White House officials have indicated that Cuba is facing economic collapse and that the government is willing to negotiate with Washington.
According to NBC News, President Trump has said multiple times that the Cuban government is ready to “collapse” and that its leaders want to “make a deal” with the U.S. government.
According to Reuters, Cuba has denied reports of high-level talks, but has not “completely” denied US media reports of “informal meetings” between Raul Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of former president Raul Castro, and US officials.
Cuba has been in the U.S. crosshairs for decades, but Trump will be the first U.S. president since the Cold War to openly discuss and pursue regime change in Havana.
President Trump’s attacks on Venezuela and Cuba coincide with a revival of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which held that the Western Hemisphere should be under the sole control of the United States and not subject to the influence of other foreign powers.
President Trump first raised the concept of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba in February.
