Marco Rubio’s evolution amid a growing Cuba crisis

Only 90 miles separates the U.S. from Cuba, roughly a one hour flight from Miami, but

while close geographically, decades of geopolitical tensions have created a deep and lasting divide.

Cuba has an economy that doesn't work in a political and governmental system they can't fix it.

So they have to change dramatically what they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough, it's not going to fix it.

So they've got some big decisions to make over there.

Hello and welcome to USA Today's the excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Tuesday, March 24th, 2026.

Join me to discuss the current crisis in Cuba and the evolution of Secretary of State Marco Rubio is USA Today White House correspondent Francesca Chambers.

It's always good to have you here Francesca.

Thanks so much.

Start us out by telling us about the Trump administration strategy toward Cuba.

So President Donald Trump has put Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is a Cuban American and a former Florida senator in terms of these talks with Havana.

Now we know that he has spoken to Raleito Castro, who is the grandson of former leader Raul Castro.

And we also know now that Rubio and the Trump administration have also been in talks with the current president Miguel Diaz Canal of Cuba.

But what is in this potential agreement that is something that we know what's been under discussion a few of the things it's a focus is on economic reforms and they've talked about an off ramp for Diaz Canal.

They've also talked about the Castro family being able to stay on the island, but we don't know exactly what is on the table at this moment, especially as the president has talked about a friendly takeover.

Or as he told me a few weeks ago, it could be an unfriendly takeover of Cuba. He's talked about both.

We've now recently seen attempts at regime change in Venezuela and Iran. About a week ago, we heard this comment from President Donald Trump.

I do believe I'll be the honor of having the honor of taking Cuba to be good on. That's a big honor.

Taking Cuba.

Taking Cuba in some form. I mean, taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it. I could do anything I want with it. You want another truth.

Francesca, how should Americans interpret the president's statement here?

Well, right. Exactly. He has talked about taking Cuba. He's talked about freeing Cuba. And I think he said that he could do whatever it is that he wants with Cuba in the end.

It's not exactly like Venezuela, though, people who are close to the administration, as well as experts have told me, because in Venezuela, the United States had Delsey Rodriguez, the acting who's currently the acting president, was the number two to Nicholas Maduro.

Here, this is an unclear situation. If the United States did want to pursue regime change. And by the way, Mark Rubio has previously testified in the Senate that it wouldn't necessarily be pursuing that as part of its strategy towards Cuba.

But it's not clear if the US has identified someone yet who's not related to the Castro's, by the way, who would be able to fulfill that role.

There's a question about whether or not the United States would accept anybody who's related to the Castro's, the law that was codified in 1996, the Helmsburg Act, which codified the US embargo against Cuba specifically says that Fidel Castro,

Raul Castro, would no longer be in government for an embargo to be lifted. Some of the other conditions that would have to be met are freedom of speech, as well as the release of political prisoners that are inside of Cuba.

So even if the United States is able to get some sort of an economic agreement with the Cuban government or with the Castro's, there's still a whole bunch of other steps that would have to happen here for this embargo that's been on Cuba from the United States for decades to be lifted.

What actions has the administration taken so far? And why did you describe this as a make or break moment for Rubio?

Well, it's a make or break moment for Marco Rubio because so much of his political career has rested on this. I mean, he interned in the office of the first Cuban American member of Congress.

He also volunteered on the campaign of another Cuban American member of Congress and then they became his mentors and he rests on their shoulders. I've heard from friends of Marco Rubio.

So this is something that's really driven him his entire political career, but his own parents left Cuba before Fidel Castro took power and they came to the United States for economic opportunity.

He grew up in a community of Cuban axiles. So this isn't something that's just important to him. And I visited South Florida and I talked to some of his former constituents and they said that they trust Rubio to be able to get some sort of an agreement that relieves oppression inside of Cuba.

As far as the Trump administration and what its approaches been, it has been focused on an economic pressure campaign against Cuba to try and force it to make the changes that it wants to see ever since the capture of Maduro in Venezuela.

So the Trump administration has been choking off oil supplies to Cuba, the only way that they're sending the oil is by sending it through private businesses that exist in Cuba to try and force an economic opening.

They've also gotten Mexico to stop selling oil to Cuba as well, which has made Cuba economically reliant on the United States.

That is bend the strategy so far, but again, President Trump has said repeatedly that if he doesn't see what he needs to see here that he could take additional action.

Marco Rubio himself said in the Oval Office last week that the economic reforms that Cuba's announced in its week, they are dramatic enough. And then he also said that they want to see the leaders of Cuba change.

Can you tell us how this administration's approach differs from the Biden administrations, where did US relations with Cuba stand at the end of the Biden administration?

So as former president Joe Biden was leaving office, his administration did a deal with Cuba that called for the release of more than 500 prisoners there, political prisoners.

And it also removed Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorists and gave Cuba a six month waiver from that embargo that I was talking about before.

On the first day of the Trump administration, President Trump came in and he rescinded a lot of the actions that Biden had taken not just with respect to Cuba, but with respect to a number of other things too.

So that's a big difference between the Trump administration and the Biden administration. It's important here to note that when Rubio was asked about the embargo, he himself didn't exactly weigh in on it.

He noted that it is something that Congress is codified and he also said that for the embargo to be lifted, there would have to be political change inside of Cuba.

As you mentioned, Rubio hasn't commented on the conversations he's had with Cuba, but how has President Diaz Canal responded to the latest tensions, which have included calls for him to step down.

Rubio is called Cuba disaster and the President has said that a deal is being negotiated here, but as I guess, as you noted before, you know, the Trump administration has been careful not to say publicly exactly what it is talking to the Cuban government and the Castro specifically about what Diaz Canal has said is that they are having talks with the administration.

That came after we had already known though that Rubio was negotiating with the Castro's.

Francesca, might we see a peaceful transition here as Cuba made its demands clear.

So for a long time, the Cuban government has had a red line about its form of government, its system of government and political change inside of the country.

At the same time, they want to see the embargo lifted, they think that the embargo is illegal, they say it's a violation of international law, but in order for that embargo to be lifted, Congress would have to take action.

It is, in fact, as Rubio has said, been codified into law by Congress and there are certain things that they'd have to do according to the law.

It also calls for there to be free speech, freedom of expression inside of Cuba, as well as elections that have multi party opposition, at least credible steps towards those kind of elections, and those are things that we've seen the Cuban government do.

In 2014, then President Barack Obama took steps to normalize relations with Cuba, the US embargo remained in place though.

What were some of the changes enacted?

During that time after the deal that President Obama made, he made it easier essentially for Americans to be able to visit Cuba at that time, and he also actually pushed for the embargo to be lifted as part of this, although that obviously did not take place.

I actually went with President Obama to Havana when he went down there as part of this normalization of relations that we're talking about, and he met with Raul Castro and he gave a speech on human rights.

And back then, there was sort of the sense of potentially that there could be additional movement on the relationship and issues with Cuba.

What I've heard from Republicans in particular, and from people close to the Trump administration that's different between what Obama did, and what the Trump administration is doing here now, is that the Trump administration does actually want to see a regime change, whether or not as Rubio said that they're going to force the regime change is still an open question, but they have said they'd like to see regime change here.

It's something that they're pushing for, whereas in the Obama administration, that wasn't what the Obama administration has specifically said the policy was.

He wrote that as a child, Rubio told his grandfather he would one day raise an army of exiles to overthrow Castro and become president of a free Cuba.

Now a secretary of state does the idea of a free Cuba still guide him.

And the sense of Marco Rubio have told me that that is a clear through line in his career, that that is something that he wants to see it's something that drives him.

And even as President Trump, he has talked about the same thing, he's said that he wants to see this, you know, you know, a lot of business people having, you know, having lived in Florida himself.

And the president Trump is himself talked about for a long time before he was president, but it's different for Marco Rubio because he is himself Cuban American.

And I asked the president at a recent news conference about Marco Rubio as a negotiator and why the American people, you know, should trust him to negotiate this and the president himself raised some of these aspects for Marco Rubio.

And the friends of Rubio have said that no matter what happens here, that Marco Rubio is not going to stop until he sees a free Cuba.

Is there any sort of a timeline here? What will you be watching for next? Well, the president has said, including the Doral summit, the Latin American leader summit that he had in March, that he wants to see the end to the conflict with Iran that he joked at one point that Marco Rubio.

He wants a few days off in between. He said, maybe I'll give him an hour. So he has signaled that the administration will be turning to Cuba in one form or another.

As soon as it wraps up the conflict in Iran and we know that these talks are taking place behind the scenes.

Francesca Chambers is a White House correspondent for USA Today. It's always good to have you here Francesca. Thanks so much.

Thanks to our senior producer, Kaylee Monahan for her production assistance, our executive producer, Laura Beatty.

Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts at USA Today.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor.

I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA Today's The Exit.

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