This is Brian Lear's Daily Politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Friday, May 22nd.

I'm producer Amina Serna, filling in for Brian today.

We're joined now by Nahal Tusi, senior foreign affairs correspondent and columnist at Politico.

Her recent column argues that the Trump administration is increasingly willing to carry out military strikes against Cuba in a significant escalation from the economic and diplomatic pressure campaign that had prevailed in recent months.

Her piece was published on Sunday.

Then, in the 48 hours since, two major developments appeared to confirm the trajectory she described.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump's Justice Department unsealed a federal indictment of

94-year-old former Cuban President Raul Castro on murder charges related to a 1996 shooting down

of a plane piloted by four Americans. CBS News reported that the Pentagon and Defense Intelligence

Agency have begun developing

military operations for the president. So the question might no longer be whether Cuba is in

the Trump administration's crosshairs, but rather what comes next. Nahal joins us now. Welcome to,

welcome to WMIC. Yeah, it's great to be here. Thank you.

So the headline of your Sunday column was pretty blunt. Quote, yes, Trump might really attack Cuba.

We'll get into what sources have told you is on the table in terms of military options. But first,

this comes after several months of the U.S. pressure campaign against Cuba. We've reported on that on this show before how the U.S.'s

oil blockade has devastated the island. A New York Times contributor recently referred to the

situation as a, quote, man-made humanitarian crisis. So first, can you put

this into context for us and why the Trump administration doesn't think its campaign is working?

Yeah. So, you know, if you'd asked me just two, maybe three months ago, whether the administration

was willing to use military strikes or was going to, I would have said no.

...