Donald Trump again placed Cuba at the center of his political discourse, describing the country as "very oppressive" and "terribly mismanaged for many years," in comments that reignite the debate about the internal situation on the island and its impact on millions of Cubans.
During a press exchange, the leader was questioned about his stance on sending fuel to Cuba, a topic that had generated expectations following previous signals of possible flexibility. However, his response marked a harsher turn.
"Cuba is another story. It has been a terribly mismanaged country for a long time. It has a poor system. It has been very oppressive, as you know," he stated.
Trump did not limit himself to a political assessment. He also appealed to the experiences of the Cuban community in the United States, a key group in his support base. He stated that many of these citizens have directly suffered the consequences of the Cuban system.
"We have many great Cuban Americans, almost all of them voted for me. And they have been treated very poorly. In many cases, family members have been murdered. They have been beaten, assaulted... terrible things have happened in Cuba," he stated, in a message filled with references to the pain and memory of exile.
The president also described the island as "a failed nation," insisting that it has been "horribly ruled for many years by Castro," referencing the political legacy that still shapes the power structure in the country.
Today's statements contrast with those he made on March 30 from Air Force One, when he stated that if a country wanted to send oil to Cuba, he had no problem with that, which implicitly allowed for the arrival of the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin with 730,000 barrels of crude oil at the port of Matanzas the following day.
The White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, clarified at that time that there had been no formal change in the sanctions policy and that Washington reserves the right to seize vessels that violate them.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed more than 240 new sanctions against Cuba and signed Executive Order 14380, which declared a national emergency and threatened tariffs on countries that supply oil to the island.
Pressure has exacerbated an unprecedented energy crisis: Cuba faces blackouts affecting up to 55% of the national territory, with generation deficits of up to 1,945 megawatts and outages lasting between 18 and 25 hours daily. The longest total blackout recorded in 2026 lasted 29 hours and 29 minutes, on March 16.
The Cuban-American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart stated last Tuesday that Trump will not make concessions to the Cuban regime and predicted its collapse under the current administration, a stance that aligns with the position Trump himself set on January 5, when he claimed that Cuba is ready to fall and that it seems to be collapsing on its own.
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