Trump says he will have the ‘honor’ of ‘taking Cuba’

policy

Trump’s words came amid a nationwide power outage, and while a senior Cuban official said his country would move to open the economy to foreign investors.

By Annie Curial, Jack Nickas and Francis Robles, New York Times Service

March 16, 2026

4 minutes to read

President Donald Trump on Monday raised the possibility that the United States could “take” Cuba, telling reporters at the White House: “I think I would be honored to take Cuba.”

“Take over Cuba. I mean, if you liberate it, I’ll take it. I think I can do anything I want with it,” he said. “They are a very weak nation right now.”

The president’s words came on the same day that Cuban officials planned to announce at an evening event that the country’s communist government would open itself to foreign investment, including from the United States.

“Cuba is open to establishing a smooth trade relationship with American companies, as well as with Cubans residing in the United States and their descendants,” Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez Oliva Fraga told NBC News in an interview published Monday morning.

It is unclear to what extent Cuba intends to open its economy, or how the moves compare to those taken a decade ago during the years when Barack Obama was president. But the announcement comes as the island’s communist government faces a severe humanitarian and energy crisis, with some experts saying the island could run out of fuel within weeks due to a virtual blockade imposed by the Trump administration.

Over the past three months, the United States has been clamping down on Cuba’s access to foreign oil, blocking shipments from Venezuela and elsewhere. Repeated power outages followed – including a widespread blackout on Monday – and hospitals were forced to postpone some procedures, worsening a humanitarian crisis that has also included food shortages and led to rare protests on the island.

The Cuban government responded online Monday to the NBC interview, saying that “Cuban citizens living abroad, in places like Miami, will be able to invest in the private sector and own businesses in their country of origin.”

The Obama administration also opened business opportunities for American investors in the Cuban private sector, but the Cuban government blocked these moves, and the Trump administration rescinded Obama’s actions.

The government will also announce that it is open to investments outside the private sector, including in the country’s aging infrastructure, Pérez Oliva Fraga also told NBC.

But because of the decades-old US embargo, Cuba is not easily able to attract US capital, said the deputy prime minister, a key figure in its economic policy.

A person close to the negotiations said the Trump administration was waiting to see whether the changes announced Monday would be truly structural and meaningful — not just cosmetic — before deciding whether to issue licenses allowing such investments. The person requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about sensitive diplomatic matters.

“There will not be any investment from the United States unless there is a major political change on the island,” Carlos Gimenez, a Republican congressman from Florida who is Cuban-American, said on the social media platform X on Friday, in Spanish.

The Trump administration has warned that if Cuba does not make changes, it could face a fate similar to that of Venezuela. In January, the US military arrested Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, after he refused to step down.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged Friday in a televised appearance that his government is engaged in talks with Trump administration officials to resolve the crisis.

In his 90-minute appearance, Diaz-Canel said the decision to be announced Monday would “significantly facilitate” the participation of Cubans abroad in the island’s “economic and social development program.” This appears to be a strong proposal to change economic policies to allow Cuban Americans and others around the world to own businesses and invest in the private sector on the island.

Demographers estimate that more than two million Cubans have left the country in the past five years. “Our responsibility as a government is to embrace them, listen to them, care for them and give them space to participate in economic and social development,” Díaz-Canel said in his speech.

Some Cuban exiles in Florida and elsewhere have been pressing the Cuban government for years to allow Cubans abroad to invest in the country’s economy.

Cuban officials have indicated to some Cuban Americans that Monday’s announcement would include allowing the exiles to return to the island freely and run a type of enterprise that the government has legally recognized in 2021. These entities are allowed to import goods, provide services and create jobs, and have quickly become of great importance to the Cuban economy. For example, private supermarkets have higher prices than state-run stores but offer a wider range of food.

In order for more foreigners to enter and conduct business in Cuba, the US government will have to ease restrictions on traveling and doing business on the island.

Hugo Cancio, a Cuban-American living in Miami, has been running perhaps the most visible US-owned company in Cuba in years. His e-commerce platform, Catabulc, has become something of a Cuban Amazon, allowing Cubans abroad to order and ship goods to their friends and relatives still in Cuba.

Cancio built Catapolic as a U.S.-based entity with a special license to form partnerships with companies in Cuba, which deliver the goods on the ground. But he said this structure was complex, and restrictions imposed by the US government sometimes hampered operations.

If the Cuban government allows Cuban Americans to own businesses in Cuba, it could serve as a bridge to Washington, Cancio said.

“As the Cuban authorities recognize our rights to be part of the Cuban nation, and to participate in economic transformation and possible political reforms in the future, we will be the ones who change Washington,” he said. He said the exiles would push Congressional officials and the Trump administration to lift sanctions.

“We will be the ones who will talk to Washington and say: Our country recognizes us now, and we want to be part of this transformation,” Cancio said.

This article originally appeared on New York Times.