Mike Baker

OK, shifting gears, President Trump issued a fresh warning to Cuba's communist government as the island braces for unrest after the U.S.

capture of Maduro and the loss of the Venezuelan oil lifeline that long had kept Havana quietly afloat.

For years, Cuba depended on heavily subsidized Venezuelan crude, trading security assistance and intelligence support for cheap oil that helped keep the lights on back home.

That arrangement is now, of course, severed.

As U.S.

forces move to seize sanctioned tankers and clamp down on Venezuela's production, refining and exports, that snapped oil lifeline has left Havana exposed with very few options.

That's the context for Trump's message on truth social, which was anything but subtle.

The president fired off a post reading, quote, Cuba lived off Venezuelan oil and money for years.

And then in all caps, he wrote, there will be no more oil or money going to Cuba.

Zero.

I strongly suggest they make a deal.

And again, in all caps, before it's too late.

End quote.

Trump didn't spell out what kind of a deal he had in mind.

But the post-Maduro order, as Washington sees it, is not going to subsidize Havana or tolerate what the Trump administration views as a protection racket between authoritarian regimes.

And it didn't take long for a response from the island to emerge.

Cuba's president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, posted on The X, well, accusing Washington of cynicism.

Quote, those who turn everything into a business, even human lives, have no moral authority to point the finger at Cuba in any way.

End quote.

But Trump was framing the moment through a very different lens.