Trump sets his sights on Cuba and Iran
The United States, led by Donald Trump, intervened militarily in Venezuela to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro, who has been accused of alleged activities linked to drug trafficking and harsh political repression in the Latin American country. Subsequently, warnings were issued to other nations such as Colombia and Mexico, due to ideological differences and accusations also related to the scourge of drug trafficking, and to Denmark, due to a possible US takeover of Greenland, a territory of great importance to the United States for security and economic reasons.
Within this dynamic of international political expansionism by the United States during Donald Trump's second term, the focus is now on Cuba and the Islamic Republic of Iran, two traditional political rivals of the American giant for decades due to ideological issues and alliances.
Following the intervention in Venezuela at the end of December 2025, President Donald Trump went so far as to comment that Cuba would collapse under its own weight due to the cessation of Venezuelan oil supplies, vital to the Cuban economy, following the fall of Nicolás Maduro's leftist regime. Now, he is back on the offensive against the Cuban communist regime, announcing that he will impose heavy trade tariffs on all countries that supply oil to the Caribbean island, which will continue to stifle the Cuban economy.
The US president has declared a ‘national emergency’ and is threatening tariffs, which are harmful to any economy that has interests in trade with the United States, on all countries that sell oil to Cuba. The measure, authorised by an executive order under a national emergency declaration, did not specify the tariff rates or name any countries whose products could be affected by the imposition of these trade tariffs.
The Cuban government has condemned this initiative as a ‘brutal act of aggression.’ Along these lines, the Cuban state media pointed out that the US executive order threatened to paralyse electricity generation, agricultural production, water supply and health services on an island already suffering from a serious economic crisis, which was exacerbated by the historic embargo imposed by the United States on the Caribbean island.
‘The United States is attempting to subjugate, strip of their resources, mutilate the sovereignty and deprive of their independence the nations and peoples of our America,’ Havana has denounced.
The Iranian case
The Islamic Republic of Iran is also in Donald Trump's sights. The US president has already threatened military action against the Ayatollah regime due to the severe political repression of the opposition in Iran, which is leaving numerous victims in the wake of the state security forces' actions against demonstrators who have been protesting for weeks against the Iranian regime for its lack of freedoms, the difficult national economic situation and the existing repression.
On this point, Donald Trump announced that he is holding talks with the Iranian authorities to reach an understanding, while maintaining the threat of military intervention. The US president said that an agreement is being sought with the Iranian government to prevent the development of a nuclear weapon and to ‘stop killing protesters’. He also referred to the negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme, which remain stalled and aim to ensure that the atomic programme being developed by the Ayatollah regime is limited to civilian use and has no military applications that could further escalate tensions in the Middle East with other actors such as Israel, a major regional ally of the United States and Iran's staunch enemy in the area.
Trump himself has noted that he ordered a US Navy fleet to head to Iran for possible intervention and as a warning sign.
The Islamic Republic is increasingly beset by internal citizen unrest with strong protests and international pressure against the Ayatollahs' iron-fisted regime. In fact, in addition to the firm stance taken by the United States, the European Union has decided to add Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the elite corps of the Iranian Armed Forces, to the list of organisations classified as terrorist due to the violent repression being carried out in the Persian country against demonstrators and opponents.