{"id":203388,"date":"2026-03-08T20:02:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/exclusive-trump-eyes-surprise-economic-deal-with-cuba-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T20:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:02:31","slug":"exclusive-trump-eyes-surprise-economic-deal-with-cuba-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/exclusive-trump-eyes-surprise-economic-deal-with-cuba-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Trump eyes surprise economic deal with Cuba – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

DORAL, Fla. \u2013 The Trump administration is preparing an economic deal with Cuba<\/a> that could be announced soon, two sources with knowledge of the administration\u2019s plans said.
The details of the prospective deal and exact timing are not known. But an agreement could include a relaxation on Americans’ ability to travel to Havana. Trump would not need Congress\u2019 approval to loosen those types of restrictions.
Discussions have included an offramp for President Miguel Di\u0301az-Canel, the Castro family remaining on the island and deals on ports, energy and tourism. The U.S. government has floated dropping some sanctions.\u00a0
After the dramatic U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicola\u0301s Maduro<\/a> and the abrupt cutoff of oil shipments, t<\/a>he island appeared to be the administration\u2019s next target for regime change. But instead of a blunt-force campaign to topple Havana\u2019s communist government<\/a>, the Trump administration is advancing moves designed to make Cuba economically dependent on America \u2014an approach that reframes regime change through economic reliance, staving off an all-out confrontation.
President Barack Obama lifted some of the rules<\/a> during the final years of his presidency only to see Trump put some of them back in place during his first term.<\/a>
Trump\u2019s administration has also pursued an economic strategy, but sources close to the administration say it\u2019s different than what Obama did because the president has demonstrated with his strike on Venezuela and the U.S. seizure of Caracas\u2019 oil, that he\u2019s serious about restoring America\u2019s dominance in the western hemisphere.
It was not immediately clear what the U.S. would get in return for the agreement that Trump has been teasing for the last week.\u00a0
Trump has said publicly that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is having discussions with the Cuban government and the regime wants to make a deal.
USA TODAY has reached out to the White House for comment.
“Cuba’s at the end of the line. They’re very much at the end of the line. They have no money. They have no oil. They have a bad philosophy. They have a bad regime that’s been bad for a long time,\u201d Trump told Latin American leaders on March 7.
Trump said then that Cuba was negotiating with Rubio, himself and other members of the administration who he did not name. \u201cI would think a deal would be made very easily with Cuba,\u201d he said.
\u201cCuba’s in its last moments of life as it was. It’ll have a great new life, but it’s in its last moments of life the way it is,\u201d Trump added.
Former U.S. officials who\u2019ve worked on Cuba policy have privately questioned how close the administration actually is to striking a deal.
Trump has been warning of the Cuban government\u2019s downfall since his administration struck Venezuela and snatched Maduro, in a secret raid on his compound. Trump said in January that the U.S. didn\u2019t need to take military action in Cuba because the country would collapse economically if it were unable to rely on Venezuela.
Trump has leverage that Obama didn\u2019t have, the people familiar with ongoing discussions said.\u00a0
The administration has ratcheted up pressure on Cuba\u2019s government in recent days with thinly veiled warnings that it could indict Cuban government officials.\u00a0
Rubio and his aides have reportedly been in secret talks with his grandson, Raulito Castro,<\/a> who is close to his grandfather. The White House has declined to comment on the reports but senior administration officials have not shot them down.
Trump told Inter Miami CF owner Jorge Mas, whose father was born in Cuba, at a March 5 event at the White House that he\u2019d be able to visit the country soon.
\u201cYou won’t need my approval, you just fly back in,\u201d Trump said.
He\u2019s indicated that he would like to finish the bombing campaign with Iran first, saying he would like to wait a couple weeks, but suspected they\u2019d be together again soon celebrating.
\u201cAs we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela, we’re also looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba,\u201d Trump said two days later on March 7.
At his Latin American leaders summit, Trump said many of the like-minded leaders he was hosting had asked him to take care of Cuba.
\u201cFour of you said actually, \u2018Could you do us a favor? Take care of Cuba\u2019\u00a0 I’ll take care of it, okay?\u201d Trump told them.
Close allies of the president have also been sharing public warnings with Cuba in the wake of Maduro\u2019s capture. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said last week in a Fox News interview that Cuba was next on the president\u2019s list.
Trump has indicated several times in the past week would prefer to wait until the United States\u2019 war with Iran wraps up to turn to Cuba, where the Castros wield significant power behind the scenes and there\u2019s no evident successor to Raul\u2019s hand-picked heir Di\u0301az-Canel.
\u201cOur focus right now is on Iran, and we’ll do that. I would say, \u2018what will you do, take about two days off, Marco?\u201d Trump said at Doral. \u201cMaybe an hour. He’ll take one hour off, and then he’ll finish up a deal on Cuba.\u201d
Francesca Chambers is a White House Correspondent for USA Today covering foreign policy and presidential elections. You can follow her on X @fran_chambers.<\/em><\/p>\n

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DORAL, Fla. \u2013 The Trump administration is preparing an economic deal with Cuba that could be announced soon, two sources with knowledge of the administration\u2019s plans said.The details of the prospective deal and exact timing are not known. But an agreement could include a relaxation on Americans’ ability to travel to Havana. Trump would not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-203388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}