Trump’s Cuba Playbook
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Why is Cuba facing widespread blackouts and humanitarian crises?
This episode of The General and the Journalist is brought to you by Team Orion. At a time where the world is increasingly uncertain, defense needs more than traditional logistics to face those challenges. It takes trusted data, rapid decision making, and operational resilience. That's where Tim Orion comes in. Strengthen defence readiness through integration. Combining the sovereign expertise of KBR, Unipart and IBM, Timuran delivers the decision making power and support systems to sustain forces when the stakes are high. Discover how Team Orion is helping shape the future of defense readiness. Follow them on LinkedIn at Team Orion Defense. Cuba is running out of power, literally and politically. Blackouts, food shortages, and street protests are putting the Caribbean island under huge strain.
Havana blames America's blockade, Washington blames decades of communist rule. Donald Trump is now turning up the dial in his very publicly stated desire to oust Cuba's communist regime. With more sanctions, legal action, and recently the sudden arrival of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Caribbean. Taking Cuba.
That'd be good. That's a big honor. Taking Cuba. Taking Cuba in some form, yeah. Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it Think I could do anything I want with it. You wanna know the truth?
And it's all happening just ninety miles from Florida. So is Cuba nearing a breaking point? And what exactly are Trump's plans? I'm Tom, and welcome to The General and the Journalist. Patrick is travelling this week, not in the Caribbean, but I have two great guests to step into his shoes. So before we look at Trump's options, let's first take a look at the state of things on the island. Ordinary Cubans are living through, it's fair to say, one of the most severe economic and humanitarian crises in the country's modern history. And joining me to do that is Stephen Gibbs, the Times' brilliant Latin American correspondent. Lived in the region for decades. Stephen I'd offer you a job swap to come back to London and and and be a defence commentator presenter.
I suspect you wouldn't want to take it though.
Oh, I'm not sure, but uh maybe for a couple of weeks, Tom.
Well look You've been in the region for a long, long time. You've lived in Havana for for many years. You were recently in Cuba last month. Can you give us a sense of what it's like on the ground now? Hospitals, school closures, the like.
I mean the abiding sense I got when I was there just over two weeks ago was this sort of sense of emptiness. I was actually staying in a hotel that has two hundred and fifty rooms. I was told that just four of them were occupied. I went to old Havana where I lived for many years. It used to be a place bustling, full of music, full of tourists, full of people, and it was just noticeably empty. You could hear the sort of bird song in In these colonial squares. And Cubans are adapting. They're very good at adapting to crisis. This is what they've been doing for decades. So people are getting around on bicycles, on electric scooters. But it's a really, really difficult situation. I went to see a friend who has a teenage son.
He that morning had walked to school, which was over two miles.
How does Stephen Gibbs describe everyday life for ordinary Cubans right now?
He put on his school. Uniform. He was told when he was got there the school was not operating today as it hadn't the previous days, so he walks back in the heat and sits around in his house with, you know, almost nothing to do. So it's a really, really difficult situation, particularly sort of noticeable the power problem at night. A city almost totally in darkness. We went to one restaurant where It was the only table being used was by us and and after less than an hour the people running the restaurant said, Look, uh we're gonna have to close, we haven't got any fuel for our generator, so you know, sorry, but um that's it. So a really, really difficult situation, one in which Cubans are trying to adapt, but uh uh, you know, definitely as serious as it's been there for many decades.
Yeah, and and the summer's coming, it's getting hotter, isn't it?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is Cuba facing widespread blackouts and humanitarian crises?
0:00–3:24
2
How does Stephen Gibbs describe everyday life for ordinary Cubans right now?
3:24–8:21
3
What historical U.S. actions have shaped the current U.S.–Cuba relationship?
8:21–13:46
4
How are recent U.S. sanctions and legal actions increasing pressure on Havana?
13:46–19:22
5
Is Donald Trump trying to apply his Venezuela playbook to Cuba?
19:22–25:15
6
What are the three strategic options Trump could pursue against the Cuban regime?
25:15–30:44
7
What are the risks and challenges of a full‑scale U.S. military invasion of Cuba?
30:44–34:43
8
How might the Cuban people and government respond to intensified U.S. pressure?
34:43–39:39