Feb. 17, 2026

US President Donald Trump’s latest comments on his government’s blockade on Cuba Monday evening amounted to “boasting of a war crime,” one journalist said after the president told the press that the Caribbean island is a “failed nation” weeks after Trump himself cut off Cuba’s main source of energy and threatened countries with tariffs if they provided the government with oil.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump listed some of the impacts of the blockade the White House imposed after invading Venezuela last month and pushing for control of its oil supply.

“They don’t even have jet fuel to get their airplanes to take off. They’re clogging up their runway. We’re talking to Cuba right now… and they should absolutely make a deal, because it’s really a humanitarian threat,” said the president. “There’s an embargo, there’s no oil, there’s no money, there’s no anything.”