Something that hasn’t happened in months happened in Cuba on Monday. The Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin arrived at the Port of Matanzas carrying around 730,000 barrels of crude oil.
I’ve had some of you write and ask me why I’m not covering it, but first, I technically took the day off on Sunday, and second, it was initially just a New York Times “anonymous source” story, so I wanted to wait until I had actual confirmation from the Donald Trump administration or my Cuban sources. Now, we have both, plus Russian state media confirmed it as well. Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev calls it “humanitarian support.”
So, just to recap, Cuba was getting a lot of super cheap oil from Venezuela in exchange for military, intelligence, and medical help. After we captured Nicolás Maduro, and Trump and Marco Rubio began, more or less, running that country, we put a stop to that. Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum was also sending a good bit of oil to Cuba for “humanitarian” reasons, but later in January, Trump signed an executive order saying he’d put more tariffs on goods from any country sending oil to Cuba, and that put a stop to that.
Cuba has been suffering from blackouts for years — due to the country’s crumbling infrastructure and the fact that the regime actually resells a lot of the oil it does receive and pockets the profits, rather than actually using it for the people — but they have worsened this past month. At times, the entire nation has gone dark, and the blackouts are lasting much longer. Democrats, champagne socialists, and the MSM (am I being redundant?) like to pretend that the blackouts are new due to Trump’s actions, but that is completely untrue.
So, we knew that the Anatoly Kolodkin was coming for a while, and many believed the U.S. Coast Guard, which is positioned in the region, would intercept it. Obviously, that didn’t happen. On Sunday night, while flying back to Washington, D.C., Trump took questions from reporters aboard Air Force One, and here’s how he responded to what they asked about.
“We have a tanker out there — we don’t mind having somebody get a boatload because they have to survive,” he said, adding, “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with it, whether it’s Russia or not.”
Somewhere, Sheinbaum is dancing a jig because that woman has been itching to get back to propping up the Cuban regime with her “humanitarian efforts” since January. I think she talks about it almost daily during her press briefings.
Trump mentioned that the people need it for everyday activities, and when questioned about whether this helps Vladimir Putin, he said no, he just loses a boatload of oil. The president also took a question about his “Cuba next” rhetoric, to which he replied, “Yeah, Cuba’s going to be next. Cuba’s a mess, it’s a failing country, and they’re going to be next. Within a short period of time, it’s going to fail, and we will be there to help it out.”
Here are the videos of his entire remarks if you want to watch:
REPORTER: “You mentioned that Cuba will be next, what did you mean by that exactly?”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Yeah, Cuba’s going to be next. Cuba’s a mess, it’s a failing country, and they’re going to be next.”
“Within a short period of time, it’s going to fail, and we will be there… pic.twitter.com/VFIOTs9Ewg
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 30, 2026
Reporter: There’s a report that the US is going to let a Russian oil tanker go to Cuba?
Trump: If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba, I have no problem with that.
Reporter: Do you worry that that helps Putin?
Trump: It doesn’t help him. He loses one boatload of oil.… pic.twitter.com/8Vh6gHwaxs
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 30, 2026
On the surface, it looks like the president is simply allowing oil in as a humanitarian move himself, but many are wondering if there is more to it than that.
First, there is no guarantee that the oil will alleviate much suffering on the island. Gotta juice up those five-star hotels for the next Code Pink vacation and make sure the police have plenty of gas in their tanks so they can go after the protesters who are fed up with living under communism, after all. Plus, Cuba needs 100,000 barrels per day to sustain its electric grid, and this would be gone within a week if used properly.
Second, many are wondering if this is a sudden change in policy for the Trump administration. I highly doubt it. Bloomberg reports that the current U.S. strategy is “not to completely cut off access to oil, but to regulate it.” It’s possible that Trump and Rubio have more control over the regime than they’re letting on at the moment. Trump is purposely vague when he talks about it, but despite what’s said publicly by either side, there are ongoing negotiations, and the Cuban regime is under maximum pressure at this point.
This could simply be a sign that the “friendly takeover” Trump keeps talking about is happening gradually. Or it could just be a surface-level indicator that the administration is being pragmatic and doing what it can to prevent a bigger humanitarian disaster or mass migration. But that’s just me speculating — as Rubio warns, no one in the media knows anything about this situation, and we shouldn’t make assumptions unless we hear directly from the Trump administration.
Third, why allow Russia to do it and not Mexico or other countries that have tried over the last few months? For Mexico specifically, I can say that Trump holds a lot more leverage here. Mexico is the United States’ top trading partner. We don’t really do business like that with Russia. Plus, this tanker is actually already sanctioned, so the only way to really step in and stop it would be to resort to the Coast Guard or Navy intercepting it, which could escalate an already complicated relationship with Russia.
The situation in Cuba has become something of a Caribbean soap opera if you’re into geopolitics, and this is a developing story with lots of moving parts. The only thing I know for sure is that it’s probably going to get a little bit more dramatic in the months to come.
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