Maduro is in a Brooklyn jail cell.

Iran’s Supreme Leader is hiding in a bunker.

And now Cuba is next.

President Trump signed an executive order Thursday declaring a national emergency over Cuba and creating a tariff mechanism to punish any nation that supplies oil to the communist regime.

Russia wants to keep Cuba running? Pay the price.

China wants to prop up the Castros’ successors? Face the consequences.

Iran wants to help a fellow dictatorship? Get ready for economic pain.

Trump is systematically cutting off the lifelines to every hostile regime in the Western Hemisphere.

The National Emergency

The executive order doesn’t mince words.

Cuba’s policies and actions constitute “an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

That’s the legal language that triggers emergency powers.

Here’s the plain English: Cuba is a threat because of who it works with — Russia, China, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah — and Trump is treating it accordingly.

The Oil Weapon

Cuba’s economy runs on imported oil. Without it, the lights go out, the cars stop, the regime collapses.

Trump’s order creates a tariff mechanism allowing the U.S. to impose additional duties on imports from any country that “directly or indirectly” sells or provides oil to Cuba.

This is economic warfare, precisely targeted.

Want to sell oil to Cuba? Fine. But you’ll pay a price in American markets. And for most countries, access to U.S. markets is worth far more than whatever Cuba can offer.

The math becomes simple: abandon Cuba or face American tariffs.

The Intelligence Threat

The order details why Cuba matters strategically.

Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility. That facility attempts to steal sensitive U.S. national security information.

Cuba is “deepening intelligence and defense cooperation with China.”

Cuba “welcomes transnational terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas.”

This isn’t a Cold War relic we’re sanctioning out of nostalgia. This is an active intelligence platform 90 miles from Florida, working with every major adversary America faces.

The Human Rights Case

Trump also cited Cuba’s horrific human rights record.

The regime “persecutes and tortures political opponents.” It denies free speech and press freedoms. It retaliates against families of political prisoners who protest peacefully.

“The United States has zero tolerance for the depredations of the communist Cuban regime,” the order states.

This isn’t just about geopolitics. It’s about standing with the Cuban people against their oppressors.

The Maduro Connection

This order comes weeks after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

The timing isn’t coincidental.

Cuba has been Venezuela’s handler for decades. Cuban intelligence trained Maduro’s secret police. Cuban advisors helped the Venezuelan regime maintain power. Cuban doctors were sent to Venezuela as part of oil-for-services deals.

House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner said Maduro’s capture is “the beginning of the end” for Cuba’s regime.

With Maduro gone, Cuba loses a key ally and economic partner. Now Trump is cutting off their oil supply from other sources too.

The vice is tightening.

The Implementation

Here’s how the tariff mechanism works.

The Commerce Department will determine which countries are supplying oil to Cuba — directly or through intermediaries.

The State Department, working with Treasury, Homeland Security, Commerce, and the Trade Representative, decides whether to impose tariffs and how steep they should be.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio — himself the son of Cuban immigrants — monitors the national emergency and reports to Congress.

The order takes effect Friday.

The Rubio Factor

Having Marco Rubio as Secretary of State overseeing Cuba policy is poetic.

Rubio’s parents fled Cuba. He’s spent his entire political career advocating for the Cuban people against their communist oppressors. He understands the regime’s nature better than perhaps anyone in American government.

Now he has the power to act.

Trump sending Rubio to Venezuela after Maduro’s capture was a message. Putting him in charge of Cuba monitoring is another one.

The children of those who fled communist tyranny are now dismantling it.

The Broader Strategy

Look at what Trump has done in the Western Hemisphere in one year.

Maduro captured. Venezuela’s new leader cooperating with Washington.

Cuba facing oil strangulation and tariff threats to its suppliers.

The message to Latin American dictatorships is clear: align with America’s enemies and face consequences.

This is Monroe Doctrine 2.0. The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood. Hostile powers aren’t welcome.

The Regime’s Desperation

Cuba is already in crisis.

Blackouts are constant. Food is scarce. The economy is collapsing. Young Cubans are fleeing by any means possible.

The regime has survived for 65 years through a combination of repression, propaganda, and foreign support.

Trump is attacking the foreign support pillar. If Russia and China decide Cuba isn’t worth American tariffs, the regime loses its lifeline.

Without oil, there’s no electricity. Without electricity, there’s no control. Without control, there’s no regime.

The Cuban People

The order explicitly supports “the Cuban people’s aspirations for a free and democratic society.”

This matters. The policy targets the regime, not the people.

Cuban Americans have been waiting decades for this kind of sustained pressure. Previous administrations would sanction, then ease off. Obama actively normalized relations with the dictatorship.

Trump is applying maximum pressure — and unlike previous efforts, this comes when Cuba’s traditional allies (Venezuela, Russia) are weakened or distracted.

The moment for change may finally be approaching.

The Bottom Line

Trump declared a national emergency over Cuba.

Any country supplying oil to the communist regime faces American tariffs.

Russia’s intelligence facility, China’s growing cooperation, terrorist group hospitality — all cited as threats.

Rubio oversees implementation. The order takes effect Friday.

Maduro fell. The mullahs are hiding. Now Cuba is in the crosshairs.

One year into Trump’s second term, communist dictatorships in the Western Hemisphere are on notice.

Their oil is running out. Their allies are captured or cowering. Their lifelines are being cut.

The squeeze continues.