Big Take Podcast

What Trump Wants in Cuba

On today’s Big Take Podcast: Trump has talked about “taking” Cuba as the country suffers from blackouts and a US squeeze on oil.

The US embassy in Havana on March 17.Photographer: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images

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By David Fox and Sarah Holder

March 24, 2026 at 9:10 PM UTC

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President Donald Trump says he believes he’ll have the “honor of taking Cuba.” As the island nation suffers from major blackouts and a US squeeze on its oil supply, its regime’s survival — and the country’s future broadly — is in question.