Recently, as many citizens know, the US has been in conflict with countries like Venezuela and Iran. Venezuela’s government was overthrown a few months ago, and an attempt to overthrow Iran’s government is underway. As the conflict with Iran continues, oil prices continue to rise, and Americans are financing the war at the pump.
Other countries are affected as well, not just the US, so when President Donald Trump broke his fuel blockade set on Cuba to allow a Russian ship carrying roughly 730,000 barrels of oil into the Port of Matanzas on March 31st, 2026, people were shocked.
Why was this shocking? Well, as America occupies Venezuela, it has blocked oil imports to Cuba and threatened countries with high tariffs if they supply Cuba. The oil blockade has caused blackouts across the nation, trash to pile up, and hospitals to be unable to host patients due to a lack of power.
So, letting oil into Cuba is certainly a strange shift from completely cutting them off and threatening other countries with tariffs if they assist Cuba.
Leaving Air Force One on March 29th, Trump said, “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem. I prefer letting it in, whether it’s Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling and all of the other things that you need.”
This statement is very contradictory to what the White House’s message was the following day.
“There has not been a formal change in sanction policy,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “As the president said last night, we allowed this ship to reach Cuba in order to provide humanitarian needs to the Cuban people. These decisions are being made on a case-by-case basis.”
As of April 6, 2026, Russian officials have decided to send in another oil tanker despite the blockade still being in effect. It is not yet clear how President Trump feels about this delivery, but it does not seem like it will be of great concern because of his earlier feelings about Cuba receiving oil.
The U.S has been blocking and putting large tariffs on items sent to Cuba for a while now, but to allow tankers full of Russian oil to reach Cuban ports is very shocking. President Trump has talked about interfering with the Cuban government more and more recently, stating on March 16th that, “I do believe I’ll be […] having the honor of taking Cuba. That’s a big honor. Taking Cuba in some form.”
This leaves citizens with the question: “Are we going to have to pay for another war?”
