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Anna Kelly, spokesperson for the White House, published a message on X this Monday in which she discredited journalists and media outlets that, according to her, are being misled by anonymous sources claiming to know what President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will do regarding Cuba.
Kelly wrote: "So many journalists and media outlets are being misled by anonymous 'sources' claiming to know what President Trump and Secretary Rubio will do in Cuba. Warning: these journalists (and their 'sources') have no idea what they are talking about."
The denial comes in the context of a media dispute that has been ongoing since March 16, when The New York Times published a report based on four anonymous sources claiming that Washington had proposed Miguel Díaz-Canel's departure as a condition for advancing bilateral negotiations.
The article also pointed out that the U.S. would seek the release of political prisoners and gradual economic reforms, but that "so far, it is not pressing for any action against the members of the Castro family, who remain the primary power players in the country."
On March 18, Marco Rubio labeled that report as "fake news" and accused the media of relying on "charlatans and liars who claim to be well-informed like their sources."
That same day, Steven Cheung, Communications Director of the White House, strengthened the denial by stating that "the only ones who know the situation in Cuba are President Trump and Marco Rubio."
The New York Times responded through its spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander, who defended the accuracy of the report and noted that the journalists contacted the State Department "well before publication" without receiving any objections.
Stadtlander was straightforward: "Neither you nor anyone else has presented any factual rebuttal to the information. Our information is truthful and accurate."
Kelly's tweet this Monday also responds to a new report published on Sunday by The Atlantic, which claimed that the Trump administration has prepared a regime change plan for Cuba that combines economic pressure, potential legal actions in Florida against Cuban elites, and political contacts to force a transition.
An anonymous official quoted by that publication stated, "The regime change is already prepared," awaiting only Trump's final decision.
In the midst of this dispute, Díaz-Canel confirmed to the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba the existence of contacts with the U.S., although without providing details about their content. Cuba released 51 prisoners following Vatican mediation, although the regime did not recognize them as political prisoners, and Deputy Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío stated that political prisoners "are not part of the dialogue" with Washington.
The proliferation of reports based on anonymous sources reflects the opacity with which both governments handle the conversations, while the Trump administration insists that no external source has real access to what is happening in those negotiations.
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