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Donald Trump said he believed he would have the “honour” of “taking Cuba, in some form”, as a US oil blockade has tipped the island nation into a deep economic crisis.
“Whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth. They are a very weakened nation right now,” the US president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
Trump confirmed that Cuba was in talks with the US but did not offer any details about the substance of the discussions. Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Friday said the two nations were seeking “negotiated solutions” to the US energy blockade of the island.
Trump has previously suggested that there could be a “friendly takeover” of the Caribbean nation.
The New York Times also reported on Monday that the Trump administration was seeking the removal of Díaz-Canel. The FT could not independently verify the report. The White House and US state department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Such a move could leave the country’s communist government in place, echoing Trump’s strategy in Iran and Venezuela, where the US has killed and removed the respective nations’ hardline leaders while keeping their regimes intact.
Trump said on Sunday that he thought “something will happen” with Cuba “pretty quickly”, but said that “we’re going to do Iran before Cuba”.
The US blocked Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba in January, as it seeks to pressure the socialist country, which has been an adversary of Washington since Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959. Cuba is facing a dire energy crisis, with blackouts a daily occurrence.
On Monday, the entire island was without power following a “total failure” of the country’s electric grid, according to the ministry of energy and mines.
The US embassy in Havana said in a post on X that “there is no information on when power would be restored”, while the Cuban government said “micro-systems were starting to work in some territories”.
The country’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossio, blamed Washington for the blackout in a post on X on Monday afternoon. “Officials in the US government must be feeling very happy by the harm caused to every Cuban family,” de Cossio wrote in English.
The worsening conditions had led to a rare protest on Friday night in Morón, where demonstrators set fire to the Communist Party’s local headquarters, officials said.
Cuba produces only about 40 per cent of the oil needed to supply national demand and has long relied on imports from friendly nations to power homes and its tourism and agricultural industries.
Venezuela had been the country’s main benefactor, sending oil in exchange for doctors and counter-intelligence operatives until US forces arrested its then-leader, Nicolás Maduro, on January 3.
Mexico, another supplier of oil to Havana, also halted shipments in recent weeks under the threat of tariffs from the Trump administration.
Díaz-Canel on Friday said the country had not received oil imports in three months.
“These discussions have been aimed at seeking solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences between our two nations,” said Díaz-Canel, who assumed the presidency in 2021.
Díaz-Canel succeeded Fidel’s brother, Raúl Castro, who continues to wield influence over top politicians and the military. Raúl’s grandson has been reported to be negotiating with Washington, which Havana has refused to confirm or deny.