The president Donald Trump declared this Monday, at a press conference at the White House, that his administration might stop in Cuba after resolving this, without clarifying what exactly "stop" means or when the matter he referred to would conclude.
The phrase arose when a journalist asked him about an evident contradiction in his policy towards the island: Trump had promised to impose tariffs on countries that sent fuel to Cuba, but then stated that he had no issue with those shipments.
The president's response was deliberately ambiguous: "Cuba is another story. Cuba has been a terribly governed country for a long time. It has a bad system. It has been very oppressive."
Trump added that the Cuban American community, which "almost entirely voted" for him, has suffered with family members being beaten, assaulted, and in many cases killed on the island, which he described as a "bankrupt nation."
When the journalist asked him if he had said "maybe we will stop," Trump did not clarify anything.
The immediate context of that phrase is crucial: that same Monday, Trump announced a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz against Iran, following the collapse of 21 hours of negotiations in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The Epic Fury Operation, launched on February 28 alongside Israel, had distrubted 90% of Iranian missiles, sunk 158 ships from the Iranian navy, and eliminated 49 high-ranking military officials, including the supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
It is in that active warlike scenario where Trump places Cuba: something he will address "after finishing with this."
The ambiguity of the English expression "stop by" —which can refer to both a diplomatic visit and an action of another kind— was not clarified by the president, and it fuels doubts about what he truly has planned.
The statements made this Monday add to a rhetoric that Trump has escalated since January 2026, when he signed Executive Order 14380, which declared the Cuban regime an "unusual threat" to national security and imposed tariffs on countries that supply it with oil.
On March 16, he stated that he would "have the honor of taking Cuba." On March 28, at a summit in Miami, he affirmed, "Cuba is next," and immediately added, "Please pretend I didn't say that." On March 30, aboard Air Force One, he remarked: In a short time, it will fail, and we will be there to help it.
However, alongside that rhetoric, Trump authorized the passage of the Russian tanker Anatoli Kolodkin with 730,000 barrels of crude oil to Cuba at the end of March, justifying it as a humanitarian gesture: "I prefer to let it in, whether it's from Russia or any other country, because people need heating, refrigeration, and other basic necessities."
That contradiction between discourse and action is the core of the problem that surrounds the policy of Washington towards Havana.
In the diplomatic realm, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal confirmed on April 8 to AFP that there is no structured negotiation, only "initial contacts", while the State Department stated on the same day that the conversations continue at the highest level.
This Monday, Bloomberg reported that the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel declared on NBC's Meet the Press that Cuba is "open to foreign investment in oil exploration and drilling" and that Cuba would be happy to welcome U.S. companies that want to come and participate.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been more direct in his demands: His system of government must change.
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