Ben Rhodes

And essentially what we have is Haiti.

90 miles from the United States.

And so then – It just feels unprecedented, right?

I think that that is what they're trying to do is trying to see if they can –

force some kind of action out of the government by bringing that entire economy to a standstill.

And you can say it's for the purpose of bringing about a better Cuba.

And I think a lot of Cubans are done with this government.

That is crystal clear.

But nor do they want to be the last victims, as you see this kind of period of improvement take place.

At the same time, in Munich, Rubio said, look, if the government shows signs of an opening in the economy and opens its hand a little bit, then we'll interpret that positively.

So I don't know that there's also alignment between that.

Rubio, knowing what the president is prepared to kind of dedicate to this effort, it's not the same as Venezuela.

There's no oil, right?

So what's President Trump's interest in this?

That's an open question.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is, is there a leadership that's adept enough to manage this on the Cuban side?

And will it be interpreted the right way on the U.S.

side that will they take yes for an answer when yes shows up?

And that's that's a that's an open question.

And in the meantime, you're going to have all the consequences of that being felt and borne by the population in Cuba.