Trump tells Cuba to 'make a deal, before it is too late'

The mainstream framing will predictably treat Trump’s warning to Cuba as reckless bluster, as if firmness itself is the problem. But the real assumption worth challenging is that Havana responds to polite statements and open-ended engagement.

Cuba’s regime has stayed afloat by renting out its security apparatus and leaning on foreign patrons, most recently Venezuela. Cutting off that lifeline is not cruelty, it is leverage. Foreign policy without leverage becomes performative, and it often leaves dissidents and neighbors paying the price.

This is about national security and regional stability in our own hemisphere. If the regime wants sanctions relief, it should offer verifiable changes, not vague promises. The rule of law and public trust demand clarity about what we will tolerate and what we will not.

The principle at stake is simple: accountability for hostile regimes beats sentimental diplomacy that never produces results.