On Tuesday night, I was talking to my friend and our managing editor, Chris Queen, and I jokingly told him that I wish the news out of Cuba would slow down for just a day or two, so I could write about something else in the mornings. Well, I did not get my wish, but that's okay. I have actual news to report and not just anonymously-sourced MSM regurgitation, like I'm seeing from far too many media outlets lately.
On Tuesday morning, i wrote an article called "Cuban Chaos: What's Real and What's Speculation," and I ended it by saying, "The MSM and its anonymous sources don't know any more than you or I do." There have been two major stories about Cuba going around — one from USA Today and one from the New York Times — that claim to know what Donald Trump and Marco Rubio's plans are for that country, and both implied that they involve simple economic and personnel changes while leaving the Castro family in place to run things.
While everyone ran with these stories as if they were true, I cautioned readers not to buy into them. Last week, Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) confirmed that the USA Today story wasn't true, and on Tuesday night, Rubio confirmed that the New York Times story wasn't true.
The reason so many in US media keep putting out fake stories like this one is because they continue to rely on charlatans & liars claiming to be in the know as their sources. https://t.co/mfzZbeO9UT
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 18, 2026
As I said yesterday, "nine times out of 10, these anonymous sources are just people trying to make themselves seem important, or they're people with an agenda. Until Trump or Rubio confirm anything, remain skeptical of every headline you see, even if you see people in conservative media who are playing armchair Cuba expert, repeating it as if it's gospel."
I can't stress that enough. I watched people do it for months with Venezuela — people who up until that point probably couldn't find Venezuela on a map — and now I'm seeing it with Cuba.
Now, here are some new facts — real facts — that have developed between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
On Tuesday night, Cuba's "president," Miguel Díaz-Canel, basically threatened Trump and Rubio to "come at me, bro" on X.
The US publicly threatens Cuba, almost daily, with overthrowing the constitutional order by force. And it uses an outrageous pretext: the harsh limitations of the weakened economy that they have attacked and sought to isolate for more than six decades.
They intend and announce plans to seize the country, its resources, its properties, and even the very economy they seek to strangle to make us surrender.
Only in this way can the fierce economic war be explained, which is applied as collective punishment against the entire people.
In the face of the worst scenario, Cuba is accompanied by a certainty: any external aggressor will clash with an impregnable resistance.
All I can say is that this man better watch his "impregnable resistance" talk, or in the wee hours of some Saturday morning in the near future, Trump and Rubio will be sitting at Mar-a-Lago, watching our military drop in and handle him like they did with Venezuela and Iran. Just kidding — I don't think this will end up with military action, but it's fun to dream.
Rubio did, however, imply that regime change is needed. As he pointed out, Cuba has largely survived thanks to subsidies from the Soviet Union and Venezuela. Now that it doesn't have them, the regime doesn't know what to do. He said the only hope for change is to put new people in charge.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Cuba’s economy doesn’t work. It has survived on subsidies from the Soviet Union and now from Venezuela. They don’t get subsidies anymore so they’re in a lot of trouble. pic.twitter.com/wFeTOdGPvL
— Department of State (@StateDept) March 17, 2026
As for the rumors that Rubio is talking to Raúl Castro's grandson in order to make a deal — and I'll admit that I was even starting to buy into this one, based on Rubio's responses to the question — Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-Fla.) confirmed on Fox News on Tuesday that he's talked to Rubio about that, and he says it's not true either.
🚨SOS Cuba🚨 The Regime in Cuba has to go! @marthamaccallum @thestoryfnc #cuba #FL28 #freecuba🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/wnT3pR0zwx
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) March 17, 2026
Gimenez, who was actually born in Cuba, has a great op-ed on the Fox News website today: The sound of freedom: Cuba’s regime is running out of time — now the US must act. Here's a preview that explains exactly what Rubio was talking about. The country essentially has no economy:
Any discussion with the bankrupt dictatorship in Havana must begin from a position of strength. Economic relief should only follow real change. The regime must release all political prisoners, restore human rights and dismantle the totalitarian structures of the Castro dictatorship, as demanded by U.S. law codified in the LIBERTAD Act of 1996, which outlines the conditions for lifting the economic embargo on the regime.
At this moment, the regime carries roughly $46 billion in foreign debt, while its principal sources of revenue have collapsed. Remittances have dropped nearly 70%. Tourism income has fallen more than 68%. Revenue from exporting medical professionals has declined more than 53%. At the same time, the island’s crumbling power grid has collapsed, plunging millions of Cubans into constant blackouts.
These numbers reveal the truth about the economic model imposed by the Castros. The crisis is not the result of outside pressure. It is the outcome of decades of a failed ideology, corruption, central planning and economic mismanagement. For more than 67 years, the regime drained the country’s infrastructure while enriching its henchmen.
Finally, I'll add that the protests in Havana and throughout the country continued in the dark on Tuesday night. I believe that marks the 12th consecutive night of demonstrations. The regime appears to be cracking down on them more than they were last week, but that hasn't deterred the people. They're beyond sick and tired of communism.
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