Amid growing pressures and expectations for changes in Cuba, President Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to talk about the island "at the right time," in response to a direct question from journalist Juan Camilo Merlano at the White House, who asked if the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel "has his days numbered."
"No things are going well. Cuba is not doing well. It is a failed nation. And we will be talking about Cuba at the right time," Trump responded to the insistence of the Colombian correspondent in Washington.
The statements were made hours before Trump departed for China for a State visit from May 13 to 15, the first by a U.S. president in nearly nine years, to meet with Xi Jinping.
On the same day, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform a message along the same lines: "No Republican has ever talked to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and is only going in one direction: downward! Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk! In the meantime, I'm heading to China!"
The geopolitical context of the message is particularly significant. On May 5, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China urged Washington to lift sanctions against Cuba, describing them as "unilateral and illegal," just before Trump's trip to Beijing.
The president's words serve as messages with multiple recipients: the American domestic audience, the regime in Havana, and the Chinese government.
The statements are framed within a sustained escalation of maximum pressure against Cuba that began in January 2026, when Trump signed Executive Order 14380 declaring the Cuban regime an "extraordinary threat" to national security.
On May 7, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new sanctions against GAESA, the military conglomerate that controls between 40% and 70% of the Cuban economy, along with 12 officials, seven military entities, and three vessels, and offered 100 million dollars in humanitarian aid conditional upon the regime's approval.
"Things are going to change," Rubio warned on that occasion.
Since January 2026, the administration has accumulated more than 240 new sanctions and intercepted at least seven tankers carrying oil destined for the island, reducing Cuba's energy imports by between 80% and 90%.
The impact on the population is devastating: blackouts affecting more than 55% of the territory with outages lasting up to 25 hours a day and a projected economic contraction of 7.2% for 2026, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.
In parallel to the pressure, Trump has kept the door open for negotiation. On February 1, he confirmed "high-level" conversations with Cuba and stated, "I believe we will make a deal," while in February, Axios reported that Rubio negotiated a possible transition with "El Cangrejo", identified as the grandson of Raúl Castro.
The regime, for its part, has rejected any possibility of yielding. On May 4, the Cuban ambassador to the UN stated on Fox News: “Surrender is not in our dictionary”.
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