Trump Orders Pentagon Prep for Cuba Military Action
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- Trump administration officials at the Pentagon were quietly given a White House directive to ramp up preparations for possible military operations against Cuba, per Zeteo, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
- Trump has considered abducting members of Cuba's leadership in an operation akin to the January strike that ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, with the Justice Department pursuing a broad inquiry into Cuban officials aimed at producing fast indictments.
- Sen. Tim Kaine announced plans for a Senate War Powers Resolution vote next week to block unauthorized military action, and revealed that 52 members of Congress signed a letter condemning the administration's near-total fuel blockade of Cuba.
- Trump administration informed Congress it believes Cuba has been complicit in supplying Russia with up to 5,000 troops for its war in Ukraine — a claim Cuba denies — with the report set to surface at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Thursday.
- A brief diplomatic thaw in late March saw the US permit a Russian tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of crude to dock at Cuba's Matanzas port; Cuba responded by releasing 2,010 prisoners in its largest mass amnesty in over a decade.
- A second Russian tanker, the U.S.- and EU-sanctioned Universal, is estimated to arrive in Cuba on April 29, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in China that Moscow is committed to continued fuel shipments as humanitarian aid.
Why it matters: With 52 members of Congress already on record against the fuel blockade and Kaine lining up a War Powers vote, any unilateral strike on Cuba would face immediate legal and political resistance — while the administration is already stretched by a deadly war in Iran, soaring gas prices in an election year, and a downgraded growth forecast that could trigger a global recession.
