Cuba today is up against difficult challenges including a severe economic crisis, shortages of food, medicine, fuel, and electricity. Residents endure long lines, high inflation, and crumbling infrastructure, leading to a massive, ongoing exodus of citizens. Despite these hardships, the government maintains tight political control. The government continues to strictly control the one-party state, although some private-sector activity is permitted, it is heavily restricted.
The country is experiencing its deepest crisis since 1898, with chronic, severe shortages of basic necessities. Many rely on a struggling, limited, and unreliable monthly ration system, often finding nothing in state store. Over 2 million Cubans have left the country since 2021 due to the dire conditions, with the trend continuing into 2026.
Not content to drive this country over a cliff of ignorance, greed and vengeance our acting Commander and Chief wants to make life harder than it already is in Cuba.
On January 22, Donald Trump signed an executive order which added tariffs on any country which sells anything to Cuba. Of particular impact is the flow of oil from Venezuela and Mexico. The executive order says:
| “I find that the policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Cuba constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” |
| “The Government of Cuba has taken extraordinary actions that harm and threaten the United States. The regime aligns itself with and provides support for numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States, including the Government of the Russia, China , the Government of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah.” |
| What’s Really Happening? |
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| US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has long sought regime change in Cuba, and new reporting from Drop Site News suggested he may be intentionally misrepresenting the Trump administration’s current policy in the communist country to achieve his goal. Trump said his administration is “talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens |
| But one senior White House official explained to Drop Site that “he’s saying that because that’s what Marco is telling him.” If the public and the president himself believe that high-level negotiations are taking place, “in a few weeks or months, Rubio will be able to claim that the talks were futile because of Cuban intransigence,” Drop Site reported, asserting that Rubio is “deliberately” blocking Trump from the talks and misleading him. |