President Trump says it was an honor to occupy Cuba, calling it a “failed nation”
“I think we can do whatever we want with this,” President Donald Trump said in comments to reporters, saying it would be a “great honor” to “occupy Cuba.”
President Donald Trump stepped up his rhetoric on Cuba on March 17, saying the country was in talks with U.S. leaders and was in “bad shape” due to the oil blockade and now-resolved blackouts that left 10 million people without electricity.
Reuters reported that President Trump told reporters that Cuba was in contact with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and suggested the US government would do “something with Cuba” soon.
The comments came a day after President Trump said he believed in the “honor of occupying Cuba” and claimed he could “do whatever you want” to the country. The United States and Cuba have both confirmed that they are in negotiations, and Cuba’s top diplomat in Washington told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview on March 13 that Havana was in “serious” and “deliberate” negotiations with the U.S. government.
Cuba and the United States have begun talks aimed at defusing the most urgent crisis since 1959, when Fidel Castro ousted a US ally from power in Cuba.
Neither side has disclosed details of the ongoing negotiations, but President Trump has portrayed Cuba as eager to reach a deal.
Why does President Trump want Cuba?
Cuba, located about 90 miles south of Florida, has long been a point of contention for President Trump and the United States Cuba and the United States have had tense relations for nearly 70 years, dating back to 1959 when Cuban leader Fidel Castro overthrew the U.S.-backed government.
The Obama administration took steps to normalize bilateral relations, including restoring diplomatic relations and expanding travel and trade between the two countries. President Trump rolled back many of these normalization measures during his first term.
Cuba has been a close ally of Russia for decades since the 1959 communist revolution that brought Castro to power. Reuters recently reported that Russia has been supporting the island with both money and supplies.
President Trump has taken aim at the island nation in recent months and weeks, calling Cuba a “weakened nation” and saying the country is “ready to collapse” in the wake of U.S. sanctions and tariffs on Cuba following a January U.S. military operation that detained Cuba’s ally, former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Additionally, the Trump administration declared a national emergency against Cuba in January, saying Cuba posed an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security.
Cuba’s oil blockade, explanation of power outage
After Maduro’s arrest on January 3, the United States cut off oil supplies from Venezuela to Cuba and threatened to impose tariffs on countries that supply fuel to Cuba, in many cases leaving planes, cars and people on the island without oil.
Economic struggles have intensified in recent months as oil shortages have put pressure on the island. Cuba’s national power grid collapsed on March 16, leaving 10 million people in the dark amid a blockade that worsened the island’s already outdated power generation system. It was the latest in a series of blackouts, including one over the weekend that sparked rare violent protests in the communist-controlled country.
According to Reuters, Cuba restored power to most of its power grid on March 17, including the country’s largest oil-fired power plant, but parts of the country remain without power. Santiago de Cuba, the country’s second-largest city, remains offline but is expected to be reconnected to the grid by the end of the day, reports said.
Power was restored to nearly half of the capital, Havana, according to Cuba’s midday state news. However, most Cubans still suffer from power shortages, with Reuters reporting that even before the recent power grid collapse, many were experiencing power outages of more than 16 hours a day.
The cause of the failure is still under investigation, but Cuban officials said they were looking into a power transmission problem rather than a major power plant failure. However, Cuba has experienced large-scale power outages before, including in 2024, and in many cases the country’s outdated power generation system, which relies on aging thermal power plants from the former Soviet Union, is believed to be the culprit. The system uses approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day for essential services.
Cuts to Cuba’s oil imports from Mexico and Venezuela in 2025, as well as problems paying for oil on the spot market, are already putting pressure on the system. President Trump’s oil blockade reduced imports to almost zero as of mid-March.
In a statement shared with USA TODAY on March 17, U.S. State Department officials said large-scale power outages are common and “a sign of the incompetence of a fallen regime unable to provide even the most basic goods and services to its people.”
“This is the tragic result of more than 60 years of communist rule. This island, once the jewel of the Caribbean, has fallen into extreme poverty and darkness,” the official said. “As President Trump has said, the regime’s remaining forces, with U.S. support, must reach a deal that will ultimately give the Cuban people freedom and prosperity.”
Contributed by: USA TODAY kim helmgaard, Janet Rourke, George Petras, Francesca Chambers; Reuters
Kate Perez covers national trends and breaking news for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kperez@usatodayco.com or X @katecperez_.
