Is Cuba Trump’s Next Target?

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, Storytelling, New, Society & Culture, Yorker, Wnyc, Books, Remnick, Politics, Arts, David

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

The staff writer Jon Lee Anderson on what regime change in Cuba could look like, and the Pulitzer Prize-winner Ada Ferrer on the vexed history between the U.S. and the island.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:08.7	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:12.6	Since the beginning of this year, President Trump has turned sharply from his promised focus on domestic issues, America First, to a series of foreign military adventures
0:23.4	that have shocked many of his own supporters and much of the world. In January, there was the
0:30.3	invasion of Venezuela and the seizure of its president, Nicholas Maduro. Then came the threatened invasion
0:36.5	of Greenland. And now there's a war with Iran
0:40.1	that has engulfed the Middle East, killed many hundreds of people, and threatens the entire
0:46.1	global economy. And yet no sooner was the bombing of Iran underway that Trump and some of his
0:52.3	allies began teasing a new move.
0:57.3	Taking Cuba, that'd be good honor.
0:59.9	That's a big honor.
1:00.8	Taking Cuba.
1:01.7	Taking Cuba.
1:02.5	In some form, yeah.
1:03.6	Taking Cuba.
1:04.4	I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.
1:09.7	You want to know the truth?
1:10.5	They're a very
1:11.4	weakened nation right now.
1:16.5	The U.S. has effectively shut off Cuba's oil supply, and the electrical grid had a near total blackout
1:22.7	last week. New Yorker staff writer John Lee Anderson has been to Cuba countless times in his career,
1:29.4	and his most recent trip followed the invasion of Venezuela.
	...

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