Trump Says Cuba Is Seeking Help: 'We Are Going To Talk'

Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times,

Cuba wants help, and the United States will hold talks with the communist island nation, President Donald Trump announced in a Tuesday post on Truth Social.

He did not specify when those talks would take place.

“No Republican has ever spoken to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and only heading in one direction—down! Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!! In the meantime, I’m off to China!” Trump wrote in his post.

The president has made Cuba a focus of his second term, increasing pressure on Havana in the form of sanctions, an oil blockade, and repeated comments from himself and others in his administration about how Cuba is next after the U.S. military captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Cuba, in January.

As he left for his trip to China, Trump declined providing any further information to reporters at the White House.

“Cuba is not doing well. It’s a failed nation, and we'll be talking about ‌Cuba at ⁠the right time,” Trump said.

Asked about any planned talks with the country, a White House official said, “Within a short period of time, they will fall, and we will be there to ​help them out.”

Trump has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions against the Cuban regime to choke the leadership out and push it toward making a deal.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, announced some of those sanctions on May 7.

On May 1, Trump signed a presidential action broadening sanctions on the communist government, imposing them on individuals, entities, and affiliates of the regime. It also targeted anyone complicit in human rights violations or corruption.

“[Cuba’s policies] constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat,” Trump’s order said. “Not only are these policies, practices, and actions designed to harm the United States, but they are also repugnant to the moral and political values of free and democratic societies.”

On Jan. 29, Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on any country that provides Cuba with oil. Days later, the president said Mexico would cease oil shipments to the country.

The oil blockade, sanctions, and U.S. capture of Cuba’s main oil provider in Maduro have crippled the nation’s energy infrastructure.

Blackouts, shortages, and fuel rationing have become part of daily life in Cuba.

Although the United States offered some relief in allowing a Russian-flagged tanker to bring 730,000 barrels of oil to Cuba on March 31, the supply lasted less than 10 days.

Cuban Americans, including Fidel Castro’s daughter, have sharply denounced the communist government, calling on Trump to turn his attention to Cuba.

Trump has pitched the idea of a  “friendly takeover” of the country, or a military takeover, adding that he believes he will have the “honor of taking Cuba.”

“That’s a big honor, taking Cuba in some form,” Trump told reporters in March. “Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.”

Trump will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from March 13–15, the first presidential visit to the country since Trump’s 2017 stop in his first term. China has called for the United States to end its oil blockade and sanctions against Cuba.

“We’re going to have a very good meeting,” Trump said before departing.