Trump Declares He Will 'Take' Cuba as Nationwide Blackout Leaves 10 Million Without Power

The lights went out across Cuba on Monday. All of them.

The island's national electric grid suffered a complete collapse, plunging roughly 10 million people into darkness in what officials described as a total disconnection of the national system . The grid operator, Unión Nacional Eléctrica (UNE), confirmed the shutdown on social media and said it had begun investigating the cause, though officials ruled out a major power plant failure and pointed instead to a possible transmission fault Trump vows to 'take' Cuba as US oil embargo triggers power grid collapseeuronews.com·Secondary� n����r�6�(�_O�ů�9� 禙�%�Ų�)+�u"�^_E�)�la��3��j=�9���b��z�] �r.�|�#�RsH����n�n`���zz��g$1)�E�����-By����3r|D�Iwg����קg�~�w�zo�����kB|���c�B8���/�Fl ��0�J�9�^�=�w�'�*!� 3���<��T�41������� ���<�J�&�O�d�@P5��(6���$�3Pd�XDB�9�4���<˕0ӏ;E#[.��p�E�C�2ä�H(�
a�#)(�H�D������������&R�RDt�8�e�8Ć�Ӝ��̘Idn $[$�@@Dt"���K�9p��D�B�a�DNA��!����m�I��gRE�F�(H&93,ԭק��:Y�l�'G���?��Toa�%�J������ׂe�}��"���t~�`�`�ϩ����h� ����������!.

The blackout — the third major grid collapse in four months — arrived at a moment of extraordinary political pressure on Havana. Hours after the lights failed, President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he believed he would have the honor of taking Cuba .

"Whether I free it, take it — I think I can do anything I want with it," Trump said, with Vice President JD Vance standing behind him. "They're a very weakened nation right now" Trump vows to 'take' Cuba as island hit by nationwide blackoutfrance24.com·SecondaryTo display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. - US President Donald Trump vowed Monday to "take" Cuba as the communist island plunged into darkness under a total power blackout linked to a crippling oil embargo imposed by Washington..

It was among the most explicit statements Trump has made about Cuba since taking office for his second term — a period that has already seen the military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January and an ongoing war in Iran now entering its third week Trump vows to 'take' Cuba as island hit by nationwide blackoutfrance24.com·SecondaryTo display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. - US President Donald Trump vowed Monday to "take" Cuba as the communist island plunged into darkness under a total power blackout linked to a crippling oil embargo imposed by Washington..

The Oil Blockade

The immediate cause of Cuba's power crisis is an effective US oil blockade. After Maduro's capture, the Trump administration cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba — historically the island's most important energy lifeline. No oil has been imported to Cuba since January 9, according to multiple reports . Trump has further threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sells oil to the island, isolating Cuba from alternative suppliers Trump says he thinks he will have the ’honor’ of taking Cubai-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary.

The consequences have cascaded across Cuban society. The island's power infrastructure — built around obsolete Soviet-era thermal plants that depend on heavy oil imports — was already fragile before the blockade. Daily outages of up to 20 hours had become routine in parts of the country Trump vows to 'take' Cuba as US oil embargo triggers power grid collapseeuronews.com·Secondary� n����r�6�(�_O�ů�9� 禙�%�Ų�)+�u"�^_E�)�la��3��j=�9���b��z�] �r.�|�#�RsH����n�n`���zz��g$1)�E�����-By����3r|D�Iwg����קg�~�w�zo�����kB|���c�B8���/�Fl ��0�J�9�^�=�w�'�*!� 3���<��T�41������� ���<�J�&�O�d�@P5��(6���$�3Pd�XDB�9�4���<˕0ӏ;E#[.��p�E�C�2ä�H(�
a�#)(�H�D������������&R�RDt�8�e�8Ć�Ӝ��̘Idn $[$�@@Dt"���K�9p��D�B�a�DNA��!����m�I��gRE�F�(H&93,ԭק��:Y�l�'G���?��Toa�%�J������ׂe�}��"���t~�`�`�ϩ����h� ����������!. Airlines have curtailed flights to Cuba as jet fuel runs short, dealing a blow to the tourism sector that provides crucial foreign currency Trump vows to 'take' Cuba as US oil embargo triggers power grid collapseeuronews.com·Secondary� n����r�6�(�_O�ů�9� 禙�%�Ų�)+�u"�^_E�)�la��3��j=�9���b��z�] �r.�|�#�RsH����n�n`���zz��g$1)�E�����-By����3r|D�Iwg����קg�~�w�zo�����kB|���c�B8���/�Fl ��0�J�9�^�=�w�'�*!� 3���<��T�41������� ���<�J�&�O�d�@P5��(6���$�3Pd�XDB�9�4���<˕0ӏ;E#[.��p�E�C�2ä�H(�
a�#)(�H�D������������&R�RDt�8�e�8Ć�Ӝ��̘Idn $[$�@@Dt"���K�9p��D�B�a�DNA��!����m�I��gRE�F�(H&93,ԭק��:Y�l�'G���?��Toa�%�J������ׂe�}��"���t~�`�`�ϩ����h� ����������!.

The energy crisis has also fueled social unrest. Over the weekend preceding Monday's total blackout, Cuba experienced a rare violent protest in which demonstrators attacked a Communist Party office — an almost unheard-of act of defiance in the tightly controlled country Trump says he thinks he will have the ’honor’ of taking Cubai-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary.

Havana Signals Willingness to Talk

The Cuban government has begun signaling that it may be open to concessions. On Friday, President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged for the first time that his government had entered into talks with the Trump administration, after weeks of publicly insisting Cuba would not negotiate under threat Trump says he thinks he will have the ’honor’ of taking Cubai-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary. A senior economic official in Cuba announced on Monday that Cuban exiles would be invited to return and participate in the economy, a significant shift for a government that has long treated the diaspora with suspicion Trump vows to 'take' Cuba as US oil embargo triggers power grid collapseeuronews.com·Secondary� n����r�6�(�_O�ů�9� 禙�%�Ų�)+�u"�^_E�)�la��3��j=�9���b��z�] �r.�|�#�RsH����n�n`���zz��g$1)�E�����-By����3r|D�Iwg����קg�~�w�zo�����kB|���c�B8���/�Fl ��0�J�9�^�=�w�'�*!� 3���<��T�41������� ���<�J�&�O�d�@P5��(6���$�3Pd�XDB�9�4���<˕0ӏ;E#[.��p�E�C�2ä�H(�
a�#)(�H�D������������&R�RDt�8�e�8Ć�Ӝ��̘Idn $[$�@@Dt"���K�9p��D�B�a�DNA��!����m�I��gRE�F�(H&93,ԭק��:Y�l�'G���?��Toa�%�J������ׂe�}��"���t~�`�`�ϩ����h� ����������!.

Reports also indicate that Cuba has pledged to release 51 political prisoners in the coming days — a move widely interpreted as a goodwill gesture toward Washington. The Trump administration is reportedly seeking the removal of Díaz-Canel as president, though without pushing for broader regime change or action against members of the Castro family who still wield influence behind the scenes.

For adherents of the Cuban revolution, the situation represents a painful reckoning. As one Mexican analyst wrote on social media, Cuba is not negotiating out of conviction but out of asphyxiation. The island's economy has been in structural decline since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, and the current crisis has brought it closer to a breaking point than at any time in the past three decades.

A Pattern of Escalation

Trump's remarks about Cuba fit into a broader pattern of second-term foreign policy that has been far more aggressive than his first. In addition to the ongoing war in Iran — where US-Israeli military operations killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei late last month — Trump ordered the military operation that captured Maduro in January and has made repeated efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark, which has consistently refused Trump vows to 'take' Cuba as island hit by nationwide blackoutfrance24.com·SecondaryTo display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. - US President Donald Trump vowed Monday to "take" Cuba as the communist island plunged into darkness under a total power blackout linked to a crippling oil embargo imposed by Washington..

The president has framed Cuba as the next domino. In recent weeks, he has spoken of a friendly takeover of the Caribbean nation and suggested Cuba is on the verge of collapse. Monday's total blackout appeared to reinforce that narrative, though the path from rhetorical pressure to any actual change in sovereignty remains deeply uncertain .

Critics of the administration's approach argue that the oil blockade constitutes collective punishment of the Cuban people, who bear the brunt of power outages, food shortages, and economic stagnation regardless of their views on the communist government. Humanitarian organizations have warned that the energy crisis poses acute risks to hospitals, water treatment systems, and food storage across the island.

Defenders of the policy counter that decades of engagement and sanctions relief — including the Obama-era diplomatic thaw — failed to produce meaningful political reform in Cuba. From this perspective, maximum pressure represents the most realistic path toward ending one of the Western Hemisphere's last authoritarian holdouts. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, himself of Cuban descent, called on Monday for new Cuban leaders who would serve the interests of the Cuban people rather than a ruling elite.

What Happens Next

The immediate question is whether Cuba's grid can be restored and stabilized. UNE said on Monday that work had begun to bring small clusters of circuits, or microsystems, back online — an early but necessary first step in a process that could take days Trump says he thinks he will have the ’honor’ of taking Cubai-invdn-com.investing.com·Secondary. Previous grid collapses have taken anywhere from hours to over a week to fully resolve.

The larger question is political. Cuba's communist government has survived 67 years of US hostility, including the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and decades of economic embargo. But it has never faced a combination of pressures quite like the current one: the loss of its Venezuelan patron, a total oil cutoff, a crumbling infrastructure, rising domestic unrest, and an American president who speaks openly of annexation.

Whether that combination produces genuine political change, a humanitarian catastrophe, or some measure of both remains the defining question of the 2026 Cuban crisis. For now, the island sits in the dark, waiting for the lights to come back on — and for clarity on what Washington intends to do next.