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By Daniel Orton
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President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Cuba on Sunday, declaring that it will receive “zero” oil or money from Venezuela and urging its leaders to “make a deal before it’s too late,” in a Truth Social post that signaled a sharp escalation in U.S. rhetoric toward the island nation.
"Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela," the president wrote in an early Sunday morning Truth Social post. "In return, Cuba provided 'Security Services' for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE!"
"THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE," he added.
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Newsweek emailed the Cuban president's office and the White House for comment Sunday morning.
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Why It Matters
The warning comes shortly after the capture of Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, in a U.S. operation, and amid increasing calls from Washington for regime change in Havana. These events reflect a broader shift in U.S. foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere, signifying the Trump administration's willingness to employ hardline tactics, disrupt longstanding alliances, and potentially reshape the region’s diplomatic and economic landscape.
With Cuba’s economy deeply reliant on subsidized Venezuelan oil, the sudden cutoff threatened by Trump is expected to have wide-reaching consequences for ordinary Cubans and for Washington-Havana relations.
What To Know
Cuba’s economy is already in freefall, having contracted by roughly 15 percent over the past six years, including a 4 percent drop in 2025 alone, according to government figures. The island never fully recovered from the collapse of the Soviet Union, and while tourism and exports of nickel, rum, and tobacco fueled modest growth in the early 2000s, the pandemic and a surge in U.S. sanctions under Trump’s second term deepened the crisis.
Now, with Venezuelan oil shipments—historically about 35,000 barrels per day—at risk, analysts warn that a total cutoff could trigger indefinite blackouts, worsen food and fuel shortages, and accelerate migration, which drove 1.4 million Cubans to leave between 2020 and 2024.
Trump’s move builds on aggressive rhetoric from several top officials. Earlier in January, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters on Air Force One, after Maduro's capture, that Cuba's "days are numbered," and warned the regime that U.S. attention would soon turn to them. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC that the administration is "not big fans of the Cuban regime," and urging the country's leadership to be concerned about Washington’s next steps.
In addition to the economic threats to Havana, Trump appeared to endorse the notion of Rubio succeeding as Cuba’s president. In a separate Truth Social post Sunday, he wrote "sounds good to me!" alongside a screenshot of an X post in which the user had written "Marco Rubio will be president of Cuba," with a laughing face emoji.
A flurry of similar posts from the president appeared on his Truth Social timeline, made up of screenshot responses to a post on X by conservative political commentator Marc Thiessen, which said: "The Cuban regime has survived every president since [Dwight D.] Eisenhower. Wouldn’t it be something if that streak ended with Donald Trump?"
The posts all welcomed the idea of regime change in Havana.
Despite that endorsements, it is constitutionally and politically improbable for a U.S. politician such as Rubio—who was born in the United States and is not a Cuban citizen—to become president of Cuba. Under its constitution, only a citizen by birth who holds no other citizenship is eligible to hold the presidency, and the position is filled by Cuba's National Assembly from within the Communist Party’s ranks.
The Trump administration's posture marks a clear departure from former President Joe Biden's policy of cautious engagement. Instead, Trump has reaffirmed Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, reinstated sanctions, and imposed travel and business restrictions, signaling a renewed effort to isolate the Cuban government and potentially destabilize its economy.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump said on January 4: "Cuba looks like it's ready to fall. I don't know how they if they're going to hold out. But Cuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They're not getting any of it. And Cuba literally is ready to fall. And you have a lot of great Cuban-Americans that are going to be very happy about that.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, told reporters aboard Air Force One: “Cuba is a communist dictatorship that's killed priests and nuns. They've preyed on their own people. Their days are numbered.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News last weekend: “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.”
Michael Galant, senior researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told AP earlier this week: “This sort of besiegement of Cuba is very intentional. Will it work from their perspective? I think that the Cuban people have experienced suffering for a very long time, and the Cuban government is very well versed in how to handle these situations…
"I think it’s very difficult to predict what will and will not spark actual regime instability. From the perspective of Rubio, it’s a sort of wait them out. There’s always a breaking point.”
Jorge Duany at the Cuban Research Institute of Florida International University told the AP: “An indefinite shutdown of the electrical system, which is no longer so impossible to imagine, can be envisioned under a total suspension of oil shipments from Venezuela, which seems to be the current strategy of the American government…It would lead us to imagine the possibility of mass protests."
What Happens Next
The combination of new U.S. sanctions, oil embargoes, and hardline rhetoric suggests a period of acute economic and political uncertainty for Cuba.
This article contains reporting by The Associated Press.
Update, 1/11/2026, 10:35 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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