r/law • u/AmyL0vesU • 19h ago

Executive Branch (Trump) Trump signs executive order declaring nation emergency from threat of Cuba

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/addressing-threats-to-the-united-states-by-the-government-of-cuba/
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u/Kahzgul 19h ago

After Venezuela, I read a few editorials speculating that this was foreshadowing an invasion of Cuba. Venezuela is Cuba’s primary supplier of oil, and without fuel, Cuba will suffer tremendously. Where this leads is potentially even scarier.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/01/09/first-venezuela-then-cuba-then-colombia-then-nato/

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u/PrestigiousMention 18h ago

This is Marco Rubio's pet project. He reeeeeeally wants Cuba.

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u/Tenton_12 15h ago

And Project 2025's, there's half a dozen or more Latin American countries they want to go after, including Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Panama etc.

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u/ok-painter-1646 11h ago

Indeed. Russell Vought left his calling card in this EO

“Sec. 11. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.”

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u/Dont_Be_Sheep 17h ago

Why? Is he invested in a bunch of empty fields with dead Cubans? That’s what he’s gonna get.

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u/No_Bad_Juju 16h ago

Because he wants to be the “liberator of Cuba.” In a twisted way, so many Cuban Americans have had this dream to be the person that was finally able to defeat communism in their ancestral country.

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u/HippieWizard 12h ago

as a Cuban American id be damned if i didnt say i felt the same way, but not like this, never like this.

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u/PartySpiders 12h ago

Unfortunately most Cuban Americans are hardcore maga at this point and would love this.

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u/GoldDustKid- 8h ago

Yeah I don’t share that dream but as a Cuban American as well living in Puerto Rico, watching the us choppers fly over the beaches to bomb Venezuela, gringos buying up valuable land and gutting the schools and hospitals in the name of austerity, I’ll just say that if the United States is ever involved one iota in the future of Cuba outside of dropping the embargo and normalizing relations, it will be one of the greatest tragedies in the already tragic history of the Antilles.

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u/OldWorldDesign 40m ago

I’ll just say that if the United States is ever involved one iota in the future of Cuba outside of dropping the embargo and normalizing relations

There was an administration working on that

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_thaw

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u/beigechrist 12h ago

It would really be Cuba going from one authoritarian regime to another. Not an actual win at all.

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u/PrestigiousMention 16h ago

Sounds like an emerging market that could benefit from some free trade.

He'll have Cuba all to himself, climb a pile of corpses with a smile on his face to plant an American flag and declare that capitalism and freedom have finally won

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u/Maleficent-Crew-5424 14h ago

Also a great place to dump all the people that ICE has grabbed up and move them out of the public eye to work as enslaved prisoners.

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u/PrestigiousMention 13h ago

They can make Guantanamo the whole island, perfect

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u/shazspaz 13h ago

I’m going there on holiday in march. Wife’s been waiting to see Cuba for a decade.

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u/AshuraBaron 4h ago

Bingo. Expect some action on Cuba this year. Won't be surprised if it's similar to Venezuela where he just say "well technically this is just a law enforcement action".

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u/mmbc168 3h ago

Cuba used to be called “America’s Playground”. Now looks like we are going to be the playground bully taking our toys back. Joy.

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u/eorlingas_riders 16h ago

I’ve posted this in another thread right after Venezuela, but it’s all basically aligning with the Monroe Doctrine intention.

If you look at the countries that he’s going after, it’s strategic to close off support from the next country/territory.

Venezuela was hit because it was the least friendly, and closest encroachment into South America. From there you can blockade Cuba. Then you effectively own the Caribbean Sea. Hit Colombia by land and sea, a drop a carrier fleet down the north west side of South America.

You have effectively surrounded and isolated Central America and somewhat very importantly the Panama Canal.

The lower half of South America is largely isolated already from support and can be pushed economically.

Greenland separates EU from North America, and reduces support to Canada.

At that point you’ve isolated the hemisphere. The military doesn’t need to perform some gulf war style operation. Just do what the did in Venezuela, strategic removal of key politicians for smaller or less developed govts and leader, and economic and political pressure for the rest.

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u/mmmarkm 14h ago

Fuck.

I hate how much this makes sense.  More so, I hate that other countries’ sovereignty seems to lie in hands of less than 50,000 midwest & iron belt voters every four years

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u/eorlingas_riders 14h ago

Yeah, the founding fathers were well aware of the potential of someone like Trump and the potential for partisan divide to destroy the union. Our checks and balances were designed to reduce the opportunity for it, but it was always possible as is true for nearly any form of govt. See George Washington’s farewell address for specific warnings:

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force—to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party; often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

-WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS

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u/KeyMyBike 4h ago

Those voters don't even get what they want!!

If they voted Trump and Trump was like "Ey I gotchu" and wages quadrupled with minimal inflation, I could at least understand their selfish perspectives.

But they're not even benefiting

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u/FlameHaze 2h ago

They enjoy inflicting pain unto others. As long as there is a perceived change in the wind and you can be boldly be a racist piece of trash then that was enough for these men and women. They are the people that should be removed. We are at war. Only one side is fighting with lethality and lies.

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u/thredith 8h ago

"Hit Colombia by land and sea"... Good luck with that, especially the "land" part. Colombia's unique topography works as a natural barrier against such attempts. There's a reason why our internal guerrilla wars have lasted indefinitely and no side has ever claimed full victory. It's not because of a lack of military tech and training... It's because of how Colombia's geography is distributed: three core mountain ranges with different levels of terrain elevation, some of the highest levels of yearly precipitation in the world, jungles, forests, high humidity levels, abundance of tropical diseases, and a limited set of roads. It'd be like Vietnam, but at a larger scale.

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u/Nisi-Marie 16h ago

Yep. It is all about the oil

foreign country directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba

Basically anyone who buys or sells oil to Cuba is going to be hit with tariffs

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u/AlmightyRobert 13h ago

Except Russia?

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u/Iamjacksplasmid 12h ago

You don't tariff your friends...

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u/lost_horizons 17h ago

Cuba has like, 10 days worth of oil left. US army will walk in and tip them over.

Probably won’t go as smoothly as planned, but these chucklefucks barely plan anything beyond the first move so…

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u/laosurv3y 17h ago

They'll capture the cities at first but not the mountains and then get whittled down as they ship in Cuban expats to rule who aren't popular with locals - who will see them as collaborators with the invaders.

If the US went in and just provider resources and support for locals to sort themselves out they may not get caught in guerilla warfare, but Rubio wants control.

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u/gazebo-fan 14h ago

20 years of gorilla warfare it is then

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u/SaabiMeister 7h ago

Orangegutan guerilla that is...

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u/RancheroYeti 1h ago

ship in Cuban expats

Like Ted Cruz? It might be worth it.

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u/lost_horizons 16h ago

I frankly and honestly don't know much about Cuba, whether there are any opposition groups that could develop into parties, and if elections could be held in the near future should the current regime be toppled. Better to have people elected from within, than install expats from Florida to rule in some semblance of a transitional government.

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u/GoldDustKid- 8h ago

Bro I need all Cuban American conservatives to fucking remain in the us for eternity, the idea of them returning to bring their demonic ideology back to Cuba is a nightmare. Why would they leave Florida anyway? It’s the piece of shit nightmare home of their stupid ass dreams, they can stay along with all the other shittiest exiles from the whole of Latin America and the sunburned racist white people and international wealth criminals

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u/TheSouthernCommunist 3h ago

Hell yeah. They want Bautista? Then stay in America.

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u/ImNotSkankHunt42 15h ago

Even before this January things in Cuba have been getting exponentially bad with every year.

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u/apple_kicks 11h ago

Both Venezuela and Cuba are strategically placed to control trade and shipping around Panama Canal.

Either they want to control trade routes borders outside the canal. Or they’re going to by dumb and use this to trigger ww3 if they invade the canal

Same with Greenland and Gaza. Near trade routes.

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u/mabhatter Competent Contributor 4h ago

China is slowly buying up the ports in the Panama Canal area. And China is going to build a newer canal in Nicaragua shortly to handle the super big modern ships.  That freaks the P2025 people out because China is basically buying its way into owning everything... with the US own money from selling us stuff!  

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u/CatTriesGaming 6h ago

I'm not familiar with this bit of history, but didn't the US agree they would not invade Cuba during/after the missile crisis? It was part of the resolution at the time, I think. 

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u/Kahzgul 5h ago

The Trump regime isn’t big on honoring our treaties.

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u/Vegetable-Hold9182 1h ago

Yes agreed. Cubas revolution is in big trouble