On one side of Guantánamo Bay, U.S. soldiers face a temporary disruption in the availability of lattes. On the other side, Cubans sit in darkness, waiting for the power to come back on. Amid the Trump administration’s fuel blockade on Cuba, conditions in the country are deteriorating rapidly, raising the very real possibility of mass emigration. In February, the United Nations warned that a…
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 30, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that his administration would let a Russia-owned tanker carrying an estimated 730,000 barrels of oil to reach Cuba, loosening the illegal fuel blockade that has intensified the island’s already-grave humanitarian crisis.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said that “if a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem,” backing off his previous threat to tariff any nation that supplied the besieged island with fuel. Cuba has not received any oil imports since January 9, sparking nationwide blackouts and food shortages and leaving hospitals without critical supplies—with deadly consequences for patients.
Trump insisted that the oil on the Russian tanker—which experts say is enough to buy Cuba at least several weeks of energy—is “not going to have an impact,” declaring, “Cuba is finished.”
“They have a bad regime, and they have very bad and corrupt leadership,” added Trump, who presides over what analysts have deemed the most corrupt administration in US history. “Whether or not they get a boat of oil is not going to matter.”
Reporter: There’s a report that the US is going to let a Russian oil tanker go to Cuba? Trump: If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba, I have no problem with that.Reporter: Do you worry that that helps Putin?Trump: It doesn’t help him. He loses one boatload of oil.… pic.twitter.com/8Vh6gHwaxs— Acyn (@Acyn) March 30, 2026
Trump’s comments came after The New York Times reported that, “barring orders instructing it otherwise,” the US Coast Guard would not intercept the Russian tanker as it approached Cuba.
The Russian vessel, known
Markwayne Mullin was sworn in Tuesday as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, replacing Kristi Noem, who was ousted earlier this month. Mullin has served as senator for Oklahoma since 2023 following a decade in the House of Representatives. He joins the Trump administration amid a partial government shutdown, with Democrats demanding reforms to immigration enforcement before fully…
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The U.S.’s oil blockade on Cuba, a small island country already suppressed from decades of a comprehensive U.S. embargo, amounts to “economic warfare,” the purpose of which is to “suffocate” the country, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) said on Saturday as Cuba was plunged into its second nationwide blackout in a week. “We must lift the US oil blockade on Cuba. This is economic warfare designed…
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Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed “peace president,” has already attacked two nations since the start of 2026 — engaging in regime change in Venezuela on January 3 and launching an air war on Iran on March 1 — and is now strongly suggesting that Cuba would be next. All three nations have been harmed by U.S.-led economic wars for years in the form of sanctions, which have hurt the countries’…
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As the Trump administration sows chaos with a crushing fuel blockade of Cuba, a general told Congress that the military will “set up a camp” at Guantánamo Bay to detain those who try to flee the humanitarian crisis inflicted by the United States. The phrase “humanitarian crisis” was used by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to describe the situation in Cuba during a Senate Armed Services Committee…
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