Trump officials are furiously at work on secret plans to continue the president’s newfound interventionist streak by toppling the Cuban regime before the end of the year.
Insiders told The Wall Street Journal those efforts so far have included meetings with exiled political actors and civic groups in Washington, D.C. and Miami to identify both potential turncoats within the Cuban government and pressure points beyond the dismal state of the island nation’s economy.
Trump campaigned on a promise of reducing U.S. involvement in conflict overseas, which many of his more grassroots supporters see as having historically distracted Washington from more pressing issues affecting everyday voters.
The MAGA leader has defied that promise over the past month by bombing Nigeria, invading Venezuela, threatening to annex Greenland and Panama, and floating U.S. intervention in a string of other countries.
He has also now launched a new international “Board of Peace” initiative to promote “stability” and “lawful governance” in global conflict zones. Critics have decried the body as little more than a MAGAfied version of the United Nations for autocratic leaders.
Officials with knowledge of the administration’s Cuba plans told the Journal the Jan. 3 invasion of Venezuela to grab Nicolas Maduro served as a potential blueprint for any prospective action against the Communist island country.
Maduro’s capture was assisted in part “by an asset within the Venezuelan leader’s inner circle,” the newspaper noted, adding that the operation had also seen 32 Cuban members of Maduro’s security detail killed.
It is reportedly on the same basis that MAGA is now on the hunt for figures within the Cuban government who may be dissatisfied enough with the leadership of President Miguel Diaz-Canel to facilitate some sort of coup.
That likelihood is thought to have been increased by Cuba’s weakening economy, with U.S. intelligence assessments reportedly attesting to “chronic shortages of basic goods, medicines and frequent blackouts.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on this story.
“Cuba’s rulers are incompetent Marxists who have destroyed their country, and they have had a major setback with the Maduro regime that they are responsible for propping up,” a White House official told the Journal, adding that Cuba should “make a deal before it’s too late.”
