00:00Just weeks after a high-stakes operation in Venezuela, the Trump administration is now
00:21setting its sights on Cuba. And this time, the stakes couldn't be higher. According to sources
00:27from the Wall Street Journal, U.S. officials are actively hunting for insiders within the Cuban
00:32government, officials who could cut a deal to remove the communist regime, potentially by the
00:38end of 2026. Well, Cuba's in bad shape. Cuba relied on Venezuela for oil and for money.
00:46And nobody really knows what's going to happen with Cuba. They're doing very poorly. They're really
00:51a third world all the way. And we have a lot of great Cuban Americans. And I would say Marco fits
00:57very solidly into that category. And I might ask you to say a few words about we were discussing it
01:03before. Cuba is a very different. They don't have energy. They don't have oil, but they would
01:07live off of the oil from Venezuela. And what they do have is very strong people and very powerful
01:15people militarily. And they would protect the people running Venezuela. And they would take
01:22in a lot of money from Venezuela. And now they don't have that. They won't be taking in any money. So,
01:27Marco, what do you think? Well, I mean, the fundamental problem in Cuba is that it's run
01:30by incompetent people that don't know what an economy looks like, much less a functioning one.
01:34They've made a choice. And that is, they would rather have political control over the people than they
01:38would have an economy that functions. And they've gotten away with it for 60-something years,
01:42because they've had donors, the Soviet Union, and now most recently Venezuela. But that's now gone.
01:47So the people in control in Cuba have a choice to make. They can either have a real country with a
01:51real economy where their people can prosper, or they can continue with their failing dictatorship
01:56that's going to lead to systemic and societal collapse. That's a very stark and dramatic choice,
02:00and it's one we hope to make the right one. We don't have an interest in a destabilized Cuba,
02:04but that would be their fault because they refuse to allow the people of Cuba to have
02:08either economic or political freedom for that matter. The focus is clear. Trump and his team
02:14see Cuba's government as fragile, especially after losing their longtime ally, Venezuela's
02:19Nicolas Maduro. The economic lifeline that Havana once had, heavily subsidized oil from Venezuela,
02:26has evaporated. Without it, Cuba's economy is teetering on the edge of collapse.
02:31The White House's strategy is multi-pronged. It includes cutting off remaining oil supplies,
02:37targeting Cuba's overseas medical missions, a major source of hard currency,
02:42sending a clear signal to regime insiders that cooperation could spare them, but resistance will
02:48not be tolerated. And the message from Trump couldn't be clearer. On January 11th, he wrote on
02:55Truth Social, in his signature all-cap style, there will be no more oil or money going to Cuba,
03:02zero. I strongly suggest they make a deal before it is too late.
03:07You mentioned Cuba yesterday in his remarks. Does the U.S. have a plan to do something?
03:12Well, Cuba always survived because of Venezuela. Now they won't have that money coming in. They
03:18won't have the income coming in. You know, a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday. You know that.
03:24A lot of Cubans were killed.
03:26The bodyguards. No, they're looking. There was a lot of death on the other side. No death on our side.
03:34Even though no public military action has been announced against Cuba yet, several Trump allies
03:39believe the communist regime could face a Venezuela-style shakeup. But experts cautioned that
03:45removing the government could trigger a serious humanitarian crisis. After all, Cuba has resisted
03:51U.S. pressure for decades, and insiders willing to cooperate may be few and far between.
03:56Let's break down why this is such a big deal.
04:00Cuba has depended on Venezuela for oil since 1999, when Chavez took power. That supply kept the Cuban
04:07economy afloat. With Maduro ousted and Venezuela's economy destabilized, Havana now faces a supply crunch
04:14that could bring the nation to its knees in a matter of weeks if U.S. sanctions and restrictions
04:19are fully enforced. The U.S. government is also going after one of Cuba's most important sources
04:25of revenue, its overseas medical missions. Visa restrictions are being imposed on Cuban and
04:30foreign officials involved in these programs, further tightening economic pressure. And this comes on the
04:36heels of the Venezuela operation, a playbook Trump apparently hopes to replicate. Officials see the
04:42Maduro mission as both a warning and a template for how to deal with Havana. Despite the looming threats,
04:48insiders say Cuba is a much tougher nut to crack. As former Obama administration official Ricardo
04:54Zunaga explained, the Cuban government is unlikely to have officials willing to turn on their own people,
05:00even under extreme pressure. And it's not just Cuba in Trump's crosshairs. Iran is facing a far more
05:07direct threat as protests continue. Trump recently warned that if unrest persists, the whole country
05:13is going to be blown up. Clearly, 2026 is shaping up to be a year of intense U.S. foreign policy moves
05:20in multiple regions. So here's the million-dollar question. Can Cuba withstand this growing pressure,
05:27or is a Venezuela-style regime change looming on the horizon?
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