Skip to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Thailand News and Discussion Forum | ASEANNOW

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Trump Raises Possibility of ‘Friendly Takeover’ of Cuba

Featured Replies

US President Donald Trump has suggested that the United States could carry out a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, signaling sharply rising tensions between Washington and Havana.

Get the latest headlines in your email subscribe-orange.png

Speaking to reporters outside the White House as he left for Texas on Friday, Trump said that “the Cuban government is talking with us” and described the island as being “in a big deal of trouble” economically. He said Cuba currently lacks money and basic resources, and added, “maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba… we could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba.”

Trump did not explain what he meant by a “friendly takeover.” He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was engaged in high-level discussions with Cuban officials, but did not provide details. Cuba has denied that formal, high-level talks with the US government are underway, though informal contacts with some Cuban figures have been reported.

The comments come against the backdrop of worsening tensions in the region following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January during a US military operation. Cuba has long relied on Venezuela for oil and economic support, and the loss of that backing has deepened its economic crisis, which the US has sought to intensify with sanctions and an energy blockade.

In recent days, relations were further strained after a deadly shootout off Cuba’s north coast. Cuban authorities said a Florida-registered speedboat carrying armed Cuban nationals opened fire on border guards, resulting in deaths and injuries; the US is investigating the incident.

Trump characterised Cuba as a “failed nation” that wants US assistance and said that any changes on the island could be “very positive for the people that were expelled, or worse, from Cuba and live here.” He did not clarify how a takeover, friendly or otherwise, would take place or what it would involve.

Cuba’s government has strongly criticised US pressure, calling the continued trade embargo and sanctions a form of collective punishment. Officials have insisted that sovereignty and independence must be respected in any dialogue with Washington.

The idea of a takeover, even if framed as “friendly,” has alarmed diplomats and analysts, since Cuba has been among the US’s most enduring adversaries since the 1960s, and the proposal carries implications for regional stability.

Join the discussion? Create account. orange.png

Already a member? haveyr-say.png


image.png
  Adapted by ASEAN Now · Source · 27 Feb 2026


View full article

  • Replies 36
  • Views 1.3k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Most Popular Posts

  • Why is the man of Peace always talking about waging foreign wars? Don't tell me it would be a peaceful takeover - the country belongs to someone else. So, let's see the Trump-Epstein Papers in full. N

  • Jim Waldron
    Jim Waldron

    A “friendly takeover” of Cuba? Highly improbable, and historically tone-deaf. Let’s be factual. After the 1898 Spanish-American War, the U.S. occupied Cuba and imposed the Platt Amendment, giving it

  • cjinchiangrai
    cjinchiangrai

    Vlad might be open to a deal, Cuba for Poland maybe? What is Trumps cut? Maybe money through Qatar for rum and cigars?

Posted Images

  • Popular Post

Vlad might be open to a deal, Cuba for Poland maybe? What is Trumps cut? Maybe money through Qatar for rum and cigars?

  • Popular Post
2 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

Giving Xi some great ideas to copy...

He's been trying that with Taiwan, parts of the Philippines and a southern Japanese island. Let's hope Xi doesn't copy the Venezuelan example.

  • Popular Post

Why is the man of Peace always talking about waging foreign wars? Don't tell me it would be a peaceful takeover - the country belongs to someone else.

So, let's see the Trump-Epstein Papers in full. No more cover-ups. No more diversions.

  • Popular Post
1 minute ago, Purdey said:

Why is the man of Peace always talking about waging foreign wars? Don't tell me it would be a peaceful takeover - the country belongs to someone else.

So, let's see the Trump-Epstein Papers in full. No more cover-ups. No more diversions.

It would be peaceful, and not much of a take over. Just change the 'no trade' policy, and let things naturally progress. The people would open their eyes, most already are open, and slowly demand a better govt.

Right now, they are too preoccupied with trying to live, feed their families.

  • Popular Post

A “friendly takeover” of Cuba? Highly improbable, and historically tone-deaf.

Let’s be factual. After the 1898 Spanish-American War, the U.S. occupied Cuba and imposed the Platt Amendment, giving it the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and securing the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, which it still holds.

Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, and relations collapsed. The CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 attempted regime change. That was followed by decades of covert destabilisation, including Operation Mongoose, and an economic embargo imposed in the early 1960s that remains largely in place today.

Cuba’s economic difficulties cannot be discussed honestly without acknowledging over 60 years of sanctions and pressure from the U.S.

Whether one supports Havana’s system or not, the idea that it would welcome a U.S. “takeover” ignores more than a century of interventionist history.

There's a cynical saying in Australia that seems appropriate here - "Tell him he's dreaming"!

  • Popular Post

And he was overheard speaking quietly into Vances ear "Morgen, die Welt".

  • Popular Post

MAGA transformation to MCGA or is it MIGA or MVGA? America First is now relegated to rearview mirror.

  • Popular Post
55 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

And he was overheard speaking quietly into Vances ear "Morgen, die Welt".

More like:

Orbis non sufficit

  • Popular Post
2 hours ago, Jim Waldron said:

The CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961

Surely, that should be "failed" invasion?

Anyway, hands off Cuba....

5 hours ago, cjinchiangrai said:

Vlad might be open to a deal, Cuba for Poland maybe? What is Trumps cut? Maybe money through Qatar for rum and cigars?

Poland has a tough army.

3 hours ago, Purdey said:

Why is the man of Peace always talking about waging foreign wars? Don't tell me it would be a peaceful takeover - the country belongs to someone else.

So, let's see the Trump-Epstein Papers in full. No more cover-ups. No more diversions.

Ask Prince Andrew. He knew him the best.

10 minutes ago, khaosokman said:

Poland has a tough army.

Not Trumps to give away anyway, just like Ukraine.

34 minutes ago, cjinchiangrai said:

Not Trumps to give away anyway, just like Ukraine.

He is not giving anything away. Zelensky keeps crawling up his bum and asking for resources.

1 hour ago, khaosokman said:

Ask Prince Andrew. He knew him the best.

What has the ex Prince Andrew got to to with trump and Cuba?

1 hour ago, mordothailand said:

looks like trump gave up on nobel peace prize before his death

He is now going completely in the opposite way with his military threats and actions right left and centre!

If the US really wanted to wean Cuba off communism, they would have been supplying massive aid since the revolution. And what was/is Russia supplying to help the Cuban people?

With the trillion-dollar debt and war on Iran, the US is in no position to call Cuba a failed state.

  • Popular Post

Instead of taking over Cuba, why not start with letting Americans visit there as tourists, which is currently illegal. One of my sisters managed to visit a number of years ago and she liked it a lot.

7 hours ago, KhunLA said:

It would be peaceful, and not much of a take over. Just change the 'no trade' policy, and let things naturally progress. The people would open their eyes, most already are open, and slowly demand a better govt.

Right now, they are too preoccupied with trying to live, feed their families.

I 100% agree just drop the sanctions like Obama tryed to go ( trump killed that btw in his first term….just beeing the rasist plodder he is)and they will ditch their form of government rite quick!they are close neighbors and we should be friends.

  • Popular Post
4 hours ago, newnative said:

Instead of taking over Cuba, why not start with letting Americans visit there as tourists, which is currently illegal. One of my sisters managed to visit a number of years ago and she liked it a lot.

well that is precisely why, to deny cuba tourism income. cuba would get a lot more tourism from US than Thailand if only its citizens was allowed.

its pretty wild that a government get to dictate its citizens where to holiday like that, a form of communism imo

Good Idea!!!

I've been wishing for a reduction of the cost of my Cuban Black Beans.

Also, we need more Cubans, rather than Haitians.

Do you recall that great film about Cubans in Miami???

You wanna play rough?

OK

19 hours ago, Purdey said:

Why is the man of Peace always talking about waging foreign wars? Don't tell me it would be a peaceful takeover - the country belongs to someone else.

So, let's see the Trump-Epstein Papers in full. No more cover-ups. No more diversions.

Perhaps the First Lady got something to do with it ?

16 hours ago, khaosokman said:

Cuba has 12.5% inflation. They need help.

Yes they need to be allowed to trade and develop their own economy and society, develop democracy and devise solutions to their problems, keeping what they like and getting rid of what they don't like in their society.

The Cuban emigre community to which The Fragrant Leader refers, who wield considerable influence in Florida, are drawn from those who fled when the Batista regime (the prototype for US sponsored authoritarian repressive regimes in that area) was overthrown by Castro's revolution.

They will not be a "friendly takeover", not by any stretch of the imagination!

17 hours ago, khaosokman said:

Cuba has 12.5% inflation. They need help.

For sure, that's not a good figure, but if we are concerned about inflation in the countries we aim to take over, let's not abandon Iran (42%) or Venezuela (172%).

  • Popular Post

How many presidents of the USA have talked about another country becoming a 51 or 52nd state?

How many presidents have ticked off a lot of the world like Donald J Trump has. Well I doubt

any of the previous one have done anything like this.

I will be happy when the mid term elections are over, as the Republican party may become smaller

after that date. I am tired of all the terms of MAGA etc. America has been, is now and will alway be America.

Donald J Trump is not making America greater in any way, quite the opposite actually. In My Opinion anyway.

On 2/28/2026 at 11:32 AM, Purdey said:

Why is the man of Peace always talking about waging foreign wars? Don't tell me it would be a peaceful takeover - the country belongs to someone else.

So, let's see the Trump-Epstein Papers in full. No more cover-ups. No more diversions.

Perhaps the Man of Peace thing was just number 1792 in the long history of his con jobs?

Create an account or sign in to comment

Recently Browsing 0

  • No registered users viewing this page.

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.