The US president repeats claims that Cuba is ready to negotiate as it faces a growing energy and economic crisis.
Posted on March 10, 2026
US President Donald Trump has signaled that his administration is still seeking to overthrow the government in Cuba, even as the US-Israel war against Iran enters its second week.
Trump said on Monday that the US State Department remains focused on Cuba, where White House plans may or may not include “a friendly takeover” of the island, according to the Reuters news agency.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is “dealing” with Cuba, the president told reporters in Florida.
“He’s dealing with it, and it may be a friendly take, it may not be a friendly take. It really wouldn’t matter because they’re really down to… as they say, smoke. They have no power, they have no money,” Trump said.
“Anyway, they’re going to come to an agreement or we’ll make it just as easy,” he said.
Cuba has been grappling with an energy crisis since January, when US forces kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and stopped fuel exports from Caracas to Havana, isolating the country from one of its few allies and a key source of oil for the Cuban economy.
White House officials have suggested that Cuba is facing economic collapse and that its government is willing to negotiate with Washington.
Trump has said on multiple occasions that Cuba’s government is ready to “fall” and that its leaders want to “make a deal” with Washington, according to NBC News.
Cuba has denied reports of high-level talks, according to Reuters, but has not “outright” denied U.S. media reports of “informal talks” between Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, grandson of former Cuban President Raúl Castro, and U.S. officials.
Cuba has been in the US crosshairs for decades, but Trump is the first US president since the Cold War to openly discuss and seek a change of government in Havana.
Trump’s attacks on Venezuela and Cuba are in line with his revival of the “Monroe Doctrine,” a 19th-century policy that states that the Western Hemisphere should be solely under the rule of the United States and no other foreign power.
Trump first floated the notion of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba in February.
