With Maduro in US custody, Trump says he now wants to help the people of Cuba

Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald on Jan 3, 2026

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After announcing that the U.S. would “run“ Venezuela following the capture of the country’s strongman, Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump said Saturday his administration will likely discuss the situation in Cuba, the close Maduro ally that the president described as a “failing” nation.

“I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now, very badly failing nation,” he said in a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago home. “It’s very similar [to the Venezuelan case] in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and living in this country.”

Trump said the Cuban people in the communist-run island have been suffering for many years. “That system has not been a very good one for Cuba.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Cuban American from Miami who has been the architect of a policy of tougher sanctions on the island´s military, then put the Cuban government on notice.

“If I lived in Havana and were in the government, I’d be concerned,” Rubio said in the press conference. “When the president speaks, you should take him seriously.”

Rubio recalled the tight security cooperation between Havana and Caracas, remarking that Cuban agents had infiltrated Venezuelan spy agencies and provided personal security to Maduro.

“This poor island took over Venezuela,” he said. “In some cases, one of the biggest problems Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba. [Cuba] tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint.”

Short term, losing Venezuelan oil subsidies is going to make an already desperate situation on the island even worse. Cuban officials acknowledged at the end of last year the country’s economy is yet again paralyzed due to fuel shortages and power stations constantly breaking down. The island’s economy shrank another 5% last year.

“Cuba is a disaster,” Rubio said. “It’s run by incompetent, senile men. It has no economy. It’s in total collapse.”

It is still unclear however, if the ousting of Maduro will have the severe consequences for the regime in Havana that many Cuban Americans are hoping for, especially because vice president Delcy Rodríguez appears to have taken control in Maduro’s absence.

The Cuban government hastily assembled a demonstration in front of the U.S. Embassy in Havana and condemned what it called “the cowardly U.S. aggression” in a statement. The island´s government demanded the release of Maduro and warned other countries in the region to be on alert, “as the threat hangs over everyone.”