President Donald Trump suggested that negotiations are ongoing with senior officials in Cuba after the president threatened tariffs against countries trading oil with the Caribbean nation.
Trump spoke about the current relationship with Cuba to reporters on Sunday. The president’s comments come days after Trump declared a national emergency over the Cuban regime’s support for “malign actors adverse to the United States.” As a result of the classification, Trump signaled his intention to create a “tariff system” targeting Cuban imports, including oil.
“Cuba is a failing nation — it has been for a long time, but now it doesn’t have Venezuela to prop it up,” Trump said. “So we’re talking to the people in Cuba, the highest people in Cuba. We’ll see what happens.”
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“I think we’re going to make a deal with Cuba. It’s in bad shape,” Trump said. “Cuba has a humanitarian problem.”
"Cuba is a failing nation — it has been for a long time, but now it doesn't have Venezuela to prop it up," says @POTUS.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 1, 2026
"We'll see what happens… I think we're going to make a deal with Cuba. It's in bad shape." pic.twitter.com/F1xvZI64cL
Cuban President Miguel Diáz-Canel accused Trump of seeking “to strangle the Cuban economy by imposing tariffs on countries that sovereignly trade oil with Cuba” in a statement on social media.
“This new measure clearly demonstrates the fascist, criminal, and genocidal nature of a clique that has hijacked the interests of the American people for purely personal ends,” Díaz-Canel wrote.
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Diáz-Canel previously said he has not been in contact with Trump and earlier this month rejected any sort of deal from the United States, instead saying Cuba is “ready to defend the Homeland to the last drop of blood” when Trump threatened to withhold Venezuelan oil from the country.
Cuba was heavily involved in Venezuela, with the security team surrounding former Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro being “entirely controlled by Cubans,” according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. At least 24 members of this team were killed during the U.S. mission to capture Maduro, according to the Venezuelan military.
