Sen. Lindsey Graham enthusiastically backed Donald Trump’s ominous warning to Cuba to “make a deal” on Sunday—then followed up with a chilling threat of his own.
Trump, 79, warned the Latin American nation to come to an agreement with him “before it’s too late” in a Truth Social post Sunday morning. Soon after, the 70-year-old South Carolina Republican wrote on X: “My advice to the commies running Cuba and oppressing its people: Call Maduro and ask him what to do…If you can get through, that is."
“If I were you, I’d be looking for a new place to live,” Graham added.
The South Carolina senator’s charged words echo Trump’s prior warnings that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “days were numbered”—remarks made just weeks before the U.S. invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of Maduro on Jan. 3.
Graham also shared a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post, in which the former president wrote: “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided “Security Services” for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last weeks U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years. Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”
He concluded: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT.”
Trump also reposted an X post claiming Secretary of State Marco Rubio would become the president of Cuba. “Sounds good to me!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Florida Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Cuban native, also joined the posturing on Sunday morning. In a statement supporting Trump’s threat, the GOP lawmaker wrote: “With President Trump’s leadership, we will help Cuban people reclaim their freedom, rebuild their homeland, and take back their beautiful island from the communist narcoterrorist thugs who destroyed it.”
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel slammed Trump’s threat in his own X post on Sunday.
“Cuba is a free, independent, and sovereign nation. Nobody dictates what we do,” Diaz-Canel wrote. “Cuba does not attack; it has been attacked by the U.S. for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood.”
Trump and senior administration officials have repeatedly named Cuba—just 90 miles from Florida—as a potential target this month, while blaming the island for many of Venezuela’s problems.
After the shock invasion on Jan. 3, Trump declared himself in charge of Venezuela and announced plans to sell millions of barrels of the country’s sanctioned oil. The strategy poses a severe risk to Cuba, where Venezuela supplies roughly half of the country’s oil deficit, according to Reuters.
The latest threats are part of Trump’s broader intimidation campaign. Over the span of a single week, the president has targeted countries including Colombia, U.S. ally Mexico, and Greenland—an autonomous territory within NATO ally Denmark.
“In some cases, one of the biggest problems Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents fled Cuba in 1956, said during a press conference on Jan. 3. “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.”
