The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, described Havana—along with Moscow and Caracas—as a “hellish landscape of deprivation” in a speech given at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia, during an event promoting the so-called Trump Accounts.
Bessent used Cuba as a paradigmatic example of the failure of socialism to contrast that model with the investment accounts program for minors promoted by the Trump administration, which he presented as "the triumph of capitalism over socialism."
"Show me a place where this has worked. Moscow, Caracas, Havana. These worker paradises have all ended up as hellish landscapes of deprivation," Bessent stated before the Georgian audience.
The Treasury Secretary also criticized the mayor of New York, accusing him of "repackaging failed ideals of the past as a moral cause for the future" and of responding to "the oldest impulse in politics, which is to concentrate power and call it compassion."
In his intervention, Bessent criticized the ideological orientation of part of the American educational system: "Our children are taught to romanticize an ideology that leads to ruin wherever it is put to the test, to criticize capitalism for each of its flaws, and to forgive socialism for each of its ongoing failures."
The statements are framed within a maximum pressure policy of the Trump administration against Cuba, which has intensified throughout 2026. Last March, Bessent had predicted a possible slow-motion regime change in Cuba following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3.
In May, the same official issued a direct warning to the Cuban government indicating that sanctions "can increase or decrease" based on the regime's behavior, in a strategy described as "carrot and stick."
Since January 2026, Washington has imposed more than 240 sanctions against Cuba, including measures against GAESA and other state entities, reinforced by Executive Order 14404 of May 1, 2026.
The speech on Wednesday coincided with President Trump's visit to Georgia, a state with significant political influence in the U.S. electoral calendar.
Regarding the Trump Accounts, Bessent defined them as "the first right of a child to the American dream" and rejected the notion that they constitute a government handout. The program offers an initial deposit of $1,000 from the Treasury for babies born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, who are U.S. citizens. The funds are invested in stock market indices and cannot be freely withdrawn before the age of 18.
According to data from the Treasury Department cited by Bessent, the program had already exceeded 6 million registrations prior to its formal launch, with 1.4 million children eligible for the federal seed grant. 86% of those registered come from families with incomes below $200,000 per year.
"Our response to the next chatterbox from the big government about free stuff is to build an economy of ownership for all Americans," concluded Bessent, noting that 38% of households in the country have no stake in the capital markets.
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