Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel delivers a speech during a plenary session of the Eurasian Economic Forum in Minsk, Belarus June 26, 2025. Sputnik/Sergey Bobylev/Pool via REUTERS
(New York, New York) – President Donald Trump said Cuba is on the brink of collapse following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, arguing that the move has cut off the economic lifeline that sustained the Cuban government for years.
Trump said Cuba depended heavily on subsidized Venezuelan oil, which he claimed propped up the island’s economy. With that support now gone, Trump predicted the communist government in Havana could soon fall.
“Cuba now has no income,” Trump said. “They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of that now. Cuba is literally ready to fall, and you have a lot of great Cuban-Americans who are going to be very happy about this.”
Standing alongside Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham echoed the sentiment, calling Cuba a communist dictatorship and predicting its collapse. “You just wait for Cuba,” Graham said. “They killed priests and nuns. Their days are numbered.”
The comments come amid heightened tensions in the region following Maduro’s capture, which Trump and his allies have framed as a decisive blow against left-wing regimes in Latin America. Supporters of the former president praised the remarks online, arguing they signal renewed hope for freedom in Cuba after decades of communist rule.
Critics, however, pushed back against the rhetoric, accusing Trump of promoting interventionist policies and oversimplifying Cuba’s economic challenges. Some warned that predictions of imminent collapse risk inflaming regional instability.
U.S. officials have not announced any immediate policy changes toward Cuba following Trump’s remarks, but the statements have intensified debate over America’s role in confronting authoritarian governments in the Western Hemisphere.
