Has Trump pushed Cuba to the brink of collapse?
The Global Story
BBC
3.8 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
While still engaged in a war with Iran, Donald Trump’s attention is also on Havana. The US president suggested last week that he expects to soon have the “honour” of “taking Cuba, in some form”. He added “Whether I free it, take it—I think I can do anything I want with it.”
The Trump administration has tightened a longstanding US economic embargo on the Caribbean island, and created a near-total fuel blockade. Cuba was already in the grip of a severe economic crisis, and while a Russian oil tanker has recently reached the island, the blockade has pushed the country to the brink of collapse.
We speak to the BBC’s Will Grant, who has recently returned from the island, to discuss what Trump wants in Cuba, and whether the Cuban Revolution can survive its biggest test in decades.
Producers: Aron Keller and Viv Jones
Executive producer: Penny Murphy
Sound engineer: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: Havana street during a blackout. Credit: Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA/Shutterstock
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:06.1 | You mentioned that Cuba will be next. |
| 0:08.4 | Where did you mean by that exactly? |
| 0:09.7 | That who will be next? |
| 0:10.5 | Cuba. |
| 0:11.5 | Yeah, Cuba's going to be next. |
| 0:13.2 | As the world's attention is fixed on Iran, Donald Trump is already thinking about what comes |
| 0:18.9 | next. |
| 0:21.8 | Cuba's a mess. It's a failing country next. Cuba's a mess. |
| 0:23.4 | It's a failing country, and they're going to be next. |
| 0:25.9 | Within a short period of time, it's going to fail. |
| 0:28.6 | And we will be there to help it out. |
| 0:32.2 | We'll be there to help our great Cuban Americans out, |
| 0:35.2 | who were thrown out of Cuba. |
| 0:36.3 | In many cases, their family members were |
| 0:39.2 | mutilated and killed by Castro. Oh, Cuban's going to be next. From the BBC, I'm Asma Khalid in London. |
| 0:47.7 | And I'm Tristan Redmond in Paris. And today on the global story, what does Donald Trump actually want with Cuba? |
| 0:56.0 | And is this the end of the Caribbean Islands' almost 70-year-old communist revolution? |
| 1:05.7 | Asa Mulhalid, you're in Europe. You are in London. |
| 1:09.8 | I'm in this swanky studio, yes. But Tristan, you're not here. It's really strange to be in London, where my London British co-host is not here. Well, I know. I do apologize. I'm in Paris for a couple of days, but it's good to have you on the, I won't say the right side of the Atlantic, because there is no right and wrong. And as soon we will be in the same place, which will be great. |
| 1:30.0 | To foster this British and American special relationship, you know. |
| 1:33.3 | 100%. |
... |
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