Trump Administration Makes Damning New Allegations Against Cuba As Trump Teases Takeover

By Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff. Jul 20, 2026, 03:31pm EDT.

Topline: The Trump administration on Monday released a report making inflammatory new allegations against Cuba, accusing it of fostering an anti-American network of left-wing activism in the U.S., including the Democratic Socialists of America—potentially an attempt to bolster its argument for U.S. intervention in Cuba.

Key Facts: The report, titled "Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism," rehashes tensions between Cuba and the U.S. stemming from the Cold War, and casts the Caribbean nation as an ongoing ideological threat to the U.S.

Cuba, the State Department report says, built a "sprawling revolutionary network that shaped a disproportionate share of America's most famous and influential extremist movements" and "continues to maintain ties to powerful leftist nonprofits, anti-ICE collectives, socialist groups, and Marxist militant organizations across the United States."

The report notes that leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement "firmly sided with the Cuban government over the protestors in the streets" during Cuban anti-government protests in 2021—the group didn't express direct support for the Cuban government, but issued a statement urging the U.S. to lift its embargo on Cuba, which was criticized for failing to blame the Cuban government for economic distress of its people.

The report also repeatedly references the Democratic Socialists of America—the progressive group that's had numerous recent electoral victories, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's election—and its support for the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations.

The report comes as the Trump administration has shown heightened interest in toppling the communist regime and has squeezed Cuba economically with an oil blockade—President Donald Trump warned in an interview with Fox News last week, "a lot of things are going to happen in Cuba over the next several months," though he said he doesn't "see it being like Venezuela," referring to the U.S.' effective takeover of Venezuela, which Trump noted is more rich in natural resources than Cuba.

Crucial Quote: "Many of the most significant upheavals in recent American political history—from the George Floyd riots to the rise of Antifa to the explosion of pro-terrorist activism on American college campuses—can be linked, in some way, shape, or form to Cuban influence," the report alleges, calling Havana "the ideological capital of the modern radical left."

Chief Critic: "Going to need more time to digest this doozy of a report," Michael Bustamante, professor of Cuban and Cuban American studies at the University of Miami, tweeted, adding, "a skim already reveals highly questionable assertions that perversely replicate how Cuban govt portrays internal dissent as nothing but a foreign plot. It's selective, infuriating history."

Key Background: Trump in March said "Cuba is next" during a speech in Miami while discussing the success of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, but has also said he prefers a "friendly takeover" of Cuba.