On Friday, Donald Trump signed a new executive order that builds on his January national emergency declaration that Cuba is an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States due its ties to adversaries like Russia, China, and Iran and terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. This EO allows the United States to expand current sanctions and add new restrictions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Specifically, it “imposes new sanctions on entities, persons, or affiliates that support the Cuban regime’s security apparatus, are complicit in government corruption or serious human rights violations, or are agents, officials, or material supporters of the Cuban government.” It also “authorizes new sanctions on covered persons, entities, or financial institutions that have conducted or facilitated transactions with persons or entities sanctioned under the order.”
While the EO doesn’t name names, it does allow Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent plenty of leeway to maximize pressure on the crumbling regime and the Castro family.
As we know, Trump has been touting a “Cuba’s next” promise since the beginning of the year — presumably meaning he plans to liberate the island this year, after having captured Nicolás Maduro and starting Venezuela on its path to security and democracy and decapitating the regime in Iran. He’s teased a “friendly takeover,” as well as a “not-so-friendly” takeover. He’s mentioned making deals but says military options are not off the table.
Earlier this week, the Senate GOP — minus Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — made it a little easier for the president should he choose to resort to that. They defeated a resolution proposed by Democrats that would stop the president from using military action against Cuba without congressional approval. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only Democrat to join the GOP. However, it doesn’t sound like there are actually any military plans in the works at the moment.
“The measure we’re talking about is completely out of touch with the facts in Cuba nor is it relevant to anything actually happening in Cuba right now,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said of the resolution. “President Trump has never suggested we put troops on the ground in Cuba. So this entire effort is moot.”
Earlier this week, in an interview with Fox News, Rubio said the Cuban regime really only has two options at this point.
The first is total collapse “because Marxism in general doesn’t work, and it really doesn’t work when the people trying to conduct Marxism also happen to be incompetent and don’t know anything about economics and don’t care about anything about economics.”
The second is that it can get better but with very serious economic reforms, which can’t happen with the current people in charge because they are incompetent. Either way, it will lead to the end of the nearly 70 years of Castro rule.
And this administration is determined to make that happen sooner rather than later.
Rubio emphasized that isn’t just about the regime being economically incompetent. It’s about the national security threat they pose to the U.S. “They have rolled out the welcome mat to adversaries of the United States to operate within Cuban territory against our national interest with impunity,” he said. “We are not going to have a foreign military or intelligence or security apparatus operating with impunity 90 miles off the shores of the United States. That’s not going to happen under President Trump.”
In the meantime, Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla has already spoken out against the new sanctions with its own propaganda:
We firmly reject the recent unilateral coercive measures adopted by the United States government. These actions demonstrate an intention to impose, once again, collective punishment on the Cuban people.
It is no coincidence that these measures were announced on May 1, the very day that millions of Cubans take to the streets to denounce the U.S. blockade and the energy siege.
While the U.S. government represses its own people in the streets, it seeks to punish ours, who are heroically resisting the U.S. imperialism’s attacks.
These measures are extraterritorial in nature and violate the United Nations Charter. The US has no right whatsoever to impose measures against #Cuba or against third countries or entities.
He also posted images from the regime’s May Day rally (I don’t think that’s “millions” and they’re not denouncing the U.S. — most of them were probably coerced into being there) in the Communist island nation, including one of a very frail-looking 94-year-old Raúl Castro.
We firmly reject the recent unilateral coercive measures adopted by the #UnitedStates government. These actions demonstrate an intention to impose, once again, collective punishment on the Cuban people.
It is no coincidence that these measures were announced on May 1, the very… pic.twitter.com/7iaaJ0GXLM
— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) May 1, 2026
Boohoo, Bruno. Your time is coming.
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